2022 POSTERS FOR PARKS

In the summer of 2022, I was fortunate to be selected as one of 42 artists to design a poster for the 2022 Posters for Parks, an exhibition that features limited edition posters created by local artists that are inspired by Minneapolis Parks. The sale of each poster benefits the Parks Foundation that protects and preserves the award-winning Minneapolis park system.

My poster, Minnehaha, was inspired by the falls, creek and lush vegetation in Minnehaha Regional Park. The original artwork is created in powdered pastels at full size, 18” x 24”.

The falls were full and the creek was rushing this past summer, only to dry up by autumn. This photo served as the start of my composition.

The first sketch on a post-it note (shown above) was developed, refined and enlarged up to the final, full size drawing.

The colors for the final piece are created by making many color swatches. Each swatch is composed of two to four layers of powdered pastel on cream colored paper to make the desired hue and shade. The swatches are numbered and noted on the drawing where the color appears.

Using stencils and powdered pastels, the color is built up in each part of the composition with thin layers of pastel to match the swatch color.