Just think of it as Juneau\u2019s Woodstock.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a pretty fabulous event,\u201d said SueAnn Randall when asked about the inspiration behind her poster design for this year\u2019s Folk Festival. \u201cI started thinking about other festivals and my brain automatically went to Woodstock, another fabulous event.\u201d<\/p>\n
For her jumping off point, she used Woodstock\u2019s famous poster of a bird sitting on the neck of a guitar. But Randall, who describes herself as an intuitive artist, said the design grew from there. \u201cI just kind of played around and started sketching and the soundhole on the guitar, it just kind of wanted to come out into the sky like the moon and when I did that I saw through the guitar and I saw that the raven maybe had stolen this. … The raven had stolen the moon out of the guitar and created all the music for the festival.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the addition of the iconic Chilkat Mountains in the background, Randall created an Alaskan version of the classic poster design for the 42nd annual event this week.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not her first poster \u2014 she\u2019s done 13 for Juneau Jazz and Classics \u2014 but she is a multimedia, multidimensional artist.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt I had to pick one medium, it would be clay\u201d for its immediacy and three-dimensions, she said \u2014 but she doesn\u2019t limit herself, saying she practices etching, printmaking, pastels and even crayons: \u201cIt\u2019s like I never wanted to leave kindergarten.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you don\u2019t find many of her pieces in galleries, it\u2019s because most of her work is \u201cpretty personal.\u201d Those she\u2019s sold were because she \u201cfelt they needed to go to somebody else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Art is \u201can innate need I believe we all have,\u201d Randall said. And yet \u201cat some point in people\u2019s lives, it gets squashed.\u201d She describes herself as a huge supporter of the arts because it \u201chelps us stay healthy and human.\u201d<\/p>\n
Randall has a long history with Folk Fest. Two of her daughters have been performing there since they were children \u2014 some of the first to go solo on the main stage. This year, her daughter Sophie Lager will continue the tradition, singing in the \u201cFlustered Cluckers\u201d at the last dance.<\/p>\n
Asked what she likes most about Folk Fest, Randall said, \u201cthe fact that it\u2019s free really speaks to my soul because it crosses economic boundaries and people who can\u2019t afford other concerts, they get to come to this. So for me that\u2019s the most exciting part.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also loves the communal atmosphere, the camaraderie between artists and festival goers, and \u201cthe exposure to new stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just it\u2019s so rich and offers so much to so many people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact Capital City Weekly design wizard and staff writer Randi Spray at randi.spray@capweek.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Just think of it as Juneau\u2019s Woodstock. \u201cIt\u2019s a pretty fabulous event,\u201d said SueAnn Randall when asked about the inspiration behind her poster design for this year\u2019s Folk Festival. \u201cI started thinking about other festivals and my brain automatically went to Woodstock, another fabulous event.\u201d For her jumping off point, she used Woodstock\u2019s famous poster […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":33679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[74],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-33678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","tag-arts-and-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33678"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=33678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}