Bill Cosby portrait in rapeseed pulled from Minnesota State Fair

ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 1 (UPI) -- A Minnesota artist said his rapeseed portrait of Bill Cosby was on display for only a few hours at the State Fair before he was asked to take it down.

Nick Rindo, 37, whose seed-based portraits on display at the fair include a less controversial tribute to Star Trek's late Spock, Leonard Nimoy, said the Cosby creation was purposefully created from canola seeds, a type of rapeseed.

Rindo said he brought the Bill Cosby portrait to be shown with his other works in the Agriculture Horticulture Building to see what the reactions would be. He said he was surprised when fair organizers accepted the submission.

"The point was just to see, would there be outrage?" Rindo told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "Would there be people talking about it? Would it even get through?"

He said organizers had him put a piece of tape over the word "rapeseed," saying the preferred term is "canola," but it didn't take long for complaints about the portrait to start rolling in from fair-goers.

"Now it looks like I just painted a portrait of Bill Cosby with canola seeds," he said.

Rindo said in a Facebook post he took the portrait down at the request of fair officials.

He said he feels the public's rejection of his portrait, which some labeled "pro-rape," mirrors the public's rejection of the embattled entertainer himself.

"I think it's actually maybe the best possible scenario," Rindo said of the portrait's fate. "Up for a day and then taken down."

The Canola Council of Canada was quick to point out the difference between rapeseed and canola -- a form of rapeseed genetically modified to eliminate erucic acid and glucosinolates -- as well as distance itself from the embattled former TV star.

"Aside from the harmful and distasteful association with defamed comedian Bill Cosby, canola stands to further suffer if consumers conflate these two crops and their oils," spokeswoman Alison Neumer Lara said in an email to UPI.