Poster by Diane McWhorter.
While our community continues to heal from the impacts of COVID-19 we are unable to host our traditional in-person event for a second year. To keep the Fair spirit alive we are taking our festivities to the clouds again with Fair in the Clouds – A Virtual Event. The silver lining to taking the Fair to the clouds – our beloved Oregon Country Fair site continues to rejuvenate.
To commemorate our second ever virtual event we produced this poster to celebrate both the land and the clouds.
Diane McWhorter has been a graphic artist and screen printer in Eugene since 1976, and still sells at Saturday Market and OCF. She’s made dozens of Fair-related products on silk and cotton, but this was her first poster design. During the Fair in the Clouds she served on the steering committee and assisted the management team in surviving the pandemic years by offering artisan-made products for fundraising.
She felt that giving people what they longed for most, being on the land as the flowers bloomed and the woods and fields returned to their lush states, would be the most satisfying direction for the poster. Multiple trips to the site to photograph and sketch the succession of plants as they emerged provided a fantasy landscape, with everything blooming at once. Hand lettering and rustic looks drew on images of real spots and views. Representing the Virtual Fair was an exercise in freedom to put in as much emotional content as could fit in an idealized view of what stood for the faith that the event would return.
Print measures 11″x17″.
Prints are available at https://merch.oregoncountryfair.org.