Uplifting Lives with Art: 2024 Poetry Festival Artist

Anne Schreivogl next to our newly unveiled official poster at the LaConner Rotary meeting on January 29, 2024. Photo Credit: Cora Thomas

The Skagit River Poetry Foundation is proud to announce that the 2024 Skagit River Poetry Festival poster art is by Fidalgo Island artist, Anne Schreivogl.

Poetry Partnership and the Festival Poster

“It all started by going to the festivals,” as Anne explains her connection to the Foundation with a warm smile. Anne worked with the Foundation in 2018 and says, “why wouldn’t I get involved with the amount of care and thought that goes into your work at the Foundation, it’s evident. Then being asked to do the main poster for the festival, I connected immediately, it’s such an honor.” In the poster she celebrates the 2024 festival poets by painting a bright red tapestry of their names. A typewriter is in the foreground. “I often paint typewriters because I have an Underwood, and I like to do a little bit of writing.” There’s a small poem on the typewriter page that says, a bird is a poem with feathers.

A bird perches on the keys as though it pecked out the message. “The more I worked on it the more it became a tribute to the poets that have taken such risks to share their words and voices…I looked up their backgrounds and poems which are so diverse and it grew from there.” The scene captures the imagination with many details, even letters that spill over and spell out the word “poetry.” The poster sets the stage for the festival itself and invites people to “feel that magic that happens – that spark is always right there when I’ve attended the festivals,” Anne says. The festival is community driven, and not a stand alone event, the Foundation puts into action learning, literacy, and staying curious through poetry.                                                    

Original art for the poster. Titled: “A Bird is a Poem with Feathers”

The Passion

On a day when the sky was gray and wet, Anne’s workspace exuded warmth and grace. Her studio in Anacortes was full of colorful and whimsical acrylic paintings, mixed media, oil landscapes, and starts and stops all about – the signs of creativity in progress.

Anne grew up in Seattle and started to draw at a young age. “Through art I came to understand what’s around me,” Anne says. “That’s my finding beauty.” She attended Western Washington University and the Seattle Academy of Fine Art. Anne then studied abroad in France with a sketchbook in hand. She moved to the Skagit Valley in 1997 where she met Northwest landscape and impasto artist, Alfred Currier. “He mentored me…” she said, “and my skill set grew over time.” Anne’s whimsical paintings are fun and sparks joy in her audiences – key to her artistic process. “If I bring joy to people’s hearts, then I know I’ve done my job.”

Anne’s last name, Schreivogl, means “screeching bird” in German and birds consistently show up in her work. But, art does not always imitate life as Anne is allergic to birds, so painting them is a way for her to sing with them and insert humor and whimsy into her scenes. They carry messages across the painting, almost chiding, “stay awake, stay aware, and stay in the present moment.”

The Process and Present Moment

Anne’s approach to making art is both intentional and observational, inspired by her surroundings and breathes the canvas to life. She walks at Washington Park in Anacortes to root herself in the present moment. She embodies a way of knowing and walking in the world – evident from her studio, her work, and her philosophies on life and art. As she practices being aware she listens to, “who wants to show up [in the painting] and getting quiet to do that and not making demands of what it should be…with acrylics it dries so fast that if you don’t like what you’re doing you can paint over it and keep building on top of it,” she says, “nothing goes to waste, it’s the gestation of the next thing,” almost like a rebirth.

Anne painting in her studio in Anacortes.  Photo Credit: Gary Brown

On Creativity

Being aware helps Anne get into the mindset of creating. She explains her process as entering “the House of Creativity.” This could be seen as a guide for any artist.

Step 1: Physically show up to your work space and get curious

Step 2: Flip through inspiring books or start doodling/drawing

Step 3: Prep your materials (sharpen pencil, put paint on palette)

Step 4: If it’s still not clear what to do, it never hurts to start with a bird

Step 5: Before you know it, you’re creating

The door to the House of Creativity is easier to open when she follows this practice every day.

Purpose

“All I want to do is uplift lives.” Anne also uses her art to advocate and has been involved in many projects to support communities in the local area and overseas. She initiated the Petals of Hope project after the 2011 tsunami in Japan where she created a series of 40 cherry blossom paintings to process the devastation. Those paintings were gifted to people who lost their homes on the one year anniversary of the disaster, along with handmade cards collected from the Skagit Valley community. She also created The Chickadee project. One day while at Washington Park a group of chickadees lifted and flew away, almost saying “this is the way through despair, follow us.” After that, Anne invited people to make cards with sentiments like, We’re glad you are our neighbors. This project acknowledged the pain and grieving that many local community members were experiencing amidst the immigrant debate and offered hope and kindness.

She also advocates for migrant farm workers rights and their well being. “This is what I can do with my little piece and it happens collectively. You think you’re the donor but you end up receiving. It’s nourishing for all of us – the line blurs between the giver and the receiver.” This idea applies beautifully to so many aspects of life including the mission at the Skagit River Poetry Foundation, and the reciprocal learning that grows between the nonprofit and the community. The nonprofit and the community learn from one another – growing together.

Foundation Director, Molly McNulty and Anne pose with the poster at the unveiling. Photo Credit: Cora Thomas

The Foundation would like to thank Anne Schreivogl for her amazing collaboration in creating the art for the 12th Biennial Poetry Festival Poster and graphic artist, Scott McDade, for turning Anne’s art into the official poster. The 2024 Skagit River Poetry Festival brings a diverse group of poetic voices from around the nation to facilitate workshops for the local community. The festival will be held on October 3rd – 5th in LaConner, WA.

 

The poster reveal occurred at the La Conner Rotary meeting on January 29th. We thank the La Conner Rotarians for all their support.

Learn more about Anne: Schreivogl.com

Learn more about the poetry festival and Skagit River Poetry Foundation: skagitpoetry.org

By Cora Thomas, Executive Assistant to the Director, Skagit River Poetry Foundation

Read the La Conner Weekly News article about our poster unveiling at the LaConner Rotary meeting on January 29th at O’Donnell’s Irish Pub.