Just think of it as Juneau’s Woodstock.
“It’s a pretty fabulous event,” said SueAnn Randall when asked about the inspiration behind her poster design for this year’s Folk Festival. “I started thinking about other festivals and my brain automatically went to Woodstock, another fabulous event.”
For her jumping off point, she used Woodstock’s 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. “I 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.”
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.
It’s not her first poster — she’s done 13 for Juneau Jazz and Classics — but she is a multimedia, multidimensional artist.
“It I had to pick one medium, it would be clay” for its immediacy and three-dimensions, she said — but she doesn’t limit herself, saying she practices etching, printmaking, pastels and even crayons: “It’s like I never wanted to leave kindergarten.”
If you don’t find many of her pieces in galleries, it’s because most of her work is “pretty personal.” Those she’s sold were because she “felt they needed to go to somebody else.”
Art is “an innate need I believe we all have,” Randall said. And yet “at some point in people’s lives, it gets squashed.” She describes herself as a huge supporter of the arts because it “helps us stay healthy and human.”
Randall has a long history with Folk Fest. Two of her daughters have been performing there since they were children — some of the first to go solo on the main stage. This year, her daughter Sophie Lager will continue the tradition, singing in the “Flustered Cluckers” at the last dance.
Asked what she likes most about Folk Fest, Randall said, “the fact that it’s free really speaks to my soul because it crosses economic boundaries and people who can’t afford other concerts, they get to come to this. So for me that’s the most exciting part.”
She also loves the communal atmosphere, the camaraderie between artists and festival goers, and “the exposure to new stuff.”
“It just it’s so rich and offers so much to so many people,” she said.
• Contact Capital City Weekly design wizard and staff writer Randi Spray at randi.spray@capweek.com.
