Last week the Skagit River Poetry Foundation revealed its 2024 Poetry Festival poster art by Fidalgo Island artist Anne Schreivogl in a ceremony at the La Conner Rotary Club's weekly meeting (Weekly News, Jan. 31).

The whimsical poster sets the stage for the festival and invites people to "feel that magic ... that spark is always right there when I've attended the festivals," Schreivogl says. The festival is community driven and not a standalone event. The Foundation puts into action learning and literacy, and encourages curiosity through poetry.

Schreivogl celebrates the festival poets by painting a bright red tapestry of their names as the poster background with a typewriter in the foreground. "I often paint typewriters because I have an Underwood and I like to do a little bit of writing."

The small poem on the typewriter page says "a bird is a poem with feathers" – as an excitable bird perches on the keys as though it pecked out the message. Schreivogl's last name means "screeching bird" in German and birds consistently show up in her work.

Schreivogl works in multiple mediums, painting colorful and whimsical acrylics, works in mixed media and oil landscapes, and paints murals for community projects. She grew up in Seattle and started to draw at a young age. She attended Western Washington University and the Seattle Academy of Fine Art. Schreivogl then studied abroad in France before moving to the Skagit Valley in 1997, where she met Northwest landscape and impasto artist, Alfred Currier. Schreivogl's whimsical and fun paintings spark joy in her audiences.

"If I bring joy to people's hearts, then I know I've done my job," she said.

Schreivogl's approach to making art is both intentional and observational. As she practices being aware through spending time in nature 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."

Schreivogl also advocates in support of communities in the local area and overseas. She started the Petals of Hope Project after the 2011 tsunami in Japan when she gifted cherry blossom paintings to people who lost their homes. In 2017, The Chickadee Project acknowledged the pain and grieving that many local community members were experiencing amidst the immigrant debate and invited people to make cards affirming, "We're glad you are our neighbors."

Schreivogl and her partner, Currier, also advocate for migrant farm workers rights. "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."

This idea applies beautifully to the mission at the Skagit River Poetry Foundation. The nonprofit and the community learn from one another – growing together.

The Foundation thanks Schreivogl for her collaboration in creating the art for the 12th Biennial Poetry Festival Poster and graphic artist Scott McDade for turning Schreivogl'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 Oct. 3-5 in La Conner.

Learn more about Schreivogl at her website: Schreivogl.com. Learn more about the Poetry Festival: SkagitRiverPoetry.org.

Cora Thomas is executive assistant and Poets in Schools Coordinator for the Skagit River Poetry Foundation.