Commemorative poster featured at the Loon & Fish Festival

SEELEY LAKE – At this year's Loon and Fish Festival, attendees can purchase a commemorative Loon and Fish t-shirt poster. Graphic Artist Kris Gullikson created the poster with all but one of the t-shirts logos designed by Alpine Artisans, Inc. artists since the event started in 1993. A limited number of posters were printed and all proceeds support the AAI's Student Art Scholarship fund.

As a way to market the Festival, the AAI's Loon and Fish Festival Committee always conducted a contest among their members for the t-shirt logo. Any AAI artists could submit their own unique artwork for the t-shirt. It had to fit on a child's size t-shirt front, about 10 inches by 10 inches and was expected to include a loon and a fish as a prominent feature to the design. The Loon and Fish committee chose the winner.

"We would get a wide variety of designs, many of them from members, like Bob Korn, who were well known for other art forms than graphic design," AAI Program Manager Jenny Rohrer wrote in an email.

Not only was the winning design featured on that year's t-shirt, the artist also received $200.

In 1993, Jeanne Moon and Bob Korn did the first logo design together. According to Guillkson, Korn did the art and Moon did the lettering. That was repeated the second year with Barbara Willing and Moon. The following years were solo artists.

The Festival took a break from 2014 – 2018 to reassess its purpose. Rohrer explained the Loon and Fish Festival was primarily an art show and sale to showcase the wide range of beautiful artwork created by AAI members – a 'community show'. Over the years, they added other components, such as their educational "Backstage at Loon and Fish." Rohrer said this was popular but didn't serve their mission. Coupled with initiating AAI's In the Footsteps of Norman Maclean Festival in 2015, which she said took a lot of organizational energy, they didn't get back to the Loon and Fish Festival until 2019. That was the first year the Committee commissioned the logo instead of running the contest.

For the 23 Festivals, the t-shirts featured designs from 15 artists. Donna Love's designs were chosen for five different years. Korn, Moon, Willing and Jennifer Dyer all had their artwork featured twice.

Gullikson came up with the idea of creating a commemorative poster. After photographing all the t-shirts from AAI's "historic collection box" a few years ago, all she needed to gather was the artists' names and logos from the past two festivals.

Rohrer assisted her since she has access to all the old AAI newsletters.

"She and I poured over them and managed to find all but one year," Gullikson wrote. "1995 does not have art to represent the work of Barbara Willing. We were unable to contact her."

After rejoining the AAI Board of Directors, Gullikson proposed the idea for the poster instead of creating a new t-shirt this year.

"I offered this up and when I showed the printed mock up, most offered up their support," Gullikson wrote in an email.

She also asked that the proceeds benefit the AAI Art Scholarship fund. The scholarships have been her focus for many years raising funds through her Uncorked and Creative classes, "Painting for a Dream," a two-day resident art workshop hosted at the Rich Ranch and the Holiday Giving Tree.

"[The Commemorative Poster] has been a fun project and I hope the community will appreciate all the history it represents and gets behind me to support the scholarships," Gullikson wrote. "Anybody can buy a t-shirt... but now WE ALL have a chance for a Loon and Fish Commemorative POSTER representing 23 years of Festivals and 15 artists in Seeley Lake!"

The un-framed posters will be available for $20 at the Loon and Fish Festival Aug. 20 – Aug. 21 as well as online at alpineartisians.org. Artists will be available on Saturday to sign posters for attendees.