PORT TOWNSEND — Port Townsend-based artist Timbul “Bvll” Cahyono created the artwork for the 26th Port Townsend Film Festival’s official poster.
The poster’s artwork is based on Cahyono’s 10-year-old painting “Fake Somebody,” which was painted with acrylic on canvas, Cahyono said.
Cahyono digitally modified his 4-foot by 4-foot painting for the festival. On the poster, a human-bodied person is centered in the frame and the creature’s head is an octopus.
In its right hand, a bag of theater popcorn is centered at chest height. Floating up from its left hand is a twisted bull kelp balloon. Also, in the far distance over the creature’s left shoulder is a whale and a stream of water from its blowhole.
“It connected to my sense of Port Townsend and (Port Townsend Film Festival): a quirky scene by the sea, magical and wonderful,” said Keith Hitchcock, Port Townsend Film Festival’s (PTFF) marketing and development director, in a press release.
“We wanted this year’s visual identity to celebrate the magic that happens when art and place come together,” said Danielle McClelland, PTFF’s executive director, in the release
“The imagery speaks to both our maritime culture and the transformative power of film, how watching movies can transport us to new worlds while keeping us rooted in community.”
Some details about the film festival were laid out on the left side of the poster by Emily Sesso of Port Townsend-based Cold Pizza Creative.
The film festival will take place Sept. 18-21.
PTFF also announced that early bird ticket sales will begin on June 19. The pass will be sold at a 20 percent discount.
In the original painting, the creature is holding a cellphone instead of popcorn in its right hand, and a clown fish balloon instead of a bull kelp balloon in its left, he said.
“This is talking about social media,” Cahyono said. “People can be like anything. Octopuses can mimic things and change color. Sometimes when we see people on Instagram, it’s not exactly like that in real life. You can just change whatever you want people to see.”
It’s not clear if the creature is taking a selfie, photographing something else or just engaging with its phone, Cahyono said.
Cahyono’s understanding is that PTFF organizers came to him because of an exhibit he did at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center (PTMSC) in 2022.
In the exhibit, visitors entered a booth in which they were entirely surrounded by projections of bull kelp drawings painted by Cahyono.
Cahyono said he’s making art for PTMSC’s new exhibit, which isn’t yet open.
Cahyono often paints the natural world. Currently, he is making digital illustrations for a guidebook of urban wildlife. He is painting for hours a day, hundreds of wildlife creatures found from eastern Canada down to Mexico, tracking the coast.
“Already done like, I don’t know, 320 something birds already now,” Cahyono said. “I have to mix with like, ‘OK, I’m going to do an album cover too, ’cause if I draw birds the entire week, it’s like no, it’s crazy.’”
His interest in wildlife was sparked when he worked at KWPLH, an Indonesian name, or The Sun Bear Education and Conservation Center on the island of Borneo.
While working at the wildlife rescue, Cahyono said he met his wife, Alexandra Redman.
Redman was there from Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle to train the locals how to take care of bears, Cahyono said.
After she returned, she studied marine science. Redman now works as PTMSC’s aquarium curator.
Now an American, Cahyono was born in Indonesia, he said. He moved to the United States in 2010 and has lived in Port Townsend for seven or eight years, he added.
Cahyono said his interest in underwater imagery is inspired by Redman.
Cahyono said he’s been drawing and painting since he was a child. When he discovered metal music and the associated artwork, he began to paint in the style. Now, making record covers for metal records is a main focus; he’s painted hundreds of covers, he said.
Cahyono said he plans on attending the festival.
His favorite movies are old school, hand-drawn animations. A favorite of his is 2014’s “Song of the Sea,” which was painted in watercolors, he said.
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@sequimgazette.com.
