PORT ANGELES — This city’s late May cavalcade of music, dance and art has just gained a visual presence, thanks to an “old school, in-your-face” guy.
That’s how David Haight describes himself. He’s the Port Angeles artist whose riot of color — a creation born of one high-speed collage-making session — is to be the 2011 Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts poster.
Haight, a graphic artist of 30 years, didn’t want to enter the Fuca poster-art contest at first. He preferred not to get involved in what he calls the “politics” of the Port Angeles scene.
But then, one Sunday night in February, Haight’s friend Sarah Tucker called to urge him to give it a shot.
Which he did, inside of about two hours.
A picture of Port Angeles shot by local photographer Eric Neurath, sheet music for “The Bear Went Over the Mountain” that Haight had lying around and leftover art from collages he’d recently made — all of it collided to form an image that just about splashes off the paper.
‘Mutilated the photo’
“I mutilated the photo. I posterized it. I painted over it,” Haight said of Neurath’s image of the mountains and city.
Then, he put the “Mountain” music in the scanner and messed with that, too, “to make it look like it’s exploding.”
Festival Executive Director Dan Maguire, along with the board members charged with choosing the poster art, were smitten.
“Although we had many outstanding entries, the selection committee was blown away by this,” Maguire said.
“We have an outstanding festival right around the corner, and we now have the poster that can tell the story.”
For a festival poster, “you don’t want subtle,” Haight added.
“What we need is not ‘I’m a fine artist.’”
‘Explosion of music’
Instead, he pulled out his graphic- and digital-design chops, to “make it look like Mardi Gras — an explosion of music.”
Haight, 64, readily cops to having an attitude — make that a “festive, stinkin’ attitude,” due largely to the fact that he’s got neck cancer.
He’ll go to Seattle on Tuesday for five weeks of radiation treatments — bearing Juan de Fuca Festival posters.
“I’ll put them up at every gallery I can get to when they’re not nuking me,” Haight vowed.
The artist hopes to be back and well enough to go to the 18th annual festival, to run May 27 through May 30 at the Vern Burton Community Center, Elks Naval Lodge and nearby downtown Port Angeles venues.
His winning poster nets him $200 plus two full festival passes, so he’ll have his choice among the 50 acts booked for the long weekend.
Four days of music
The Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts will be four days and nights of music-driven revelry, replete with rock, folk, bluegrass, reggae, hip-hop and other sounds from all around the world, Maguire said.
“The bands that are closing every night are great bands to dance to,” he added.
“I’ve gotten feedback from people who were wishing there was more of that.”
The dance-friendly outfits booked for each evening’s final set: Poor Man’s Whiskey on Friday, May 27; Delhi 2 Dublin on Saturday night, May 28; the Paperboys on Sunday, May 29; and Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks on Monday, May 30.
During the day, the festival features workshops in ukulele, swing and bluegrass guitar, yoga and Zumba, the aerobic workout done to Latin and other rhythm-rich music.
Full festival passes are available for a special price of $40 per person through April 30; after that, they go up to $50, and once the festival has begun, full passes sell for $55.
That price hasn’t risen over last year, Maguire noted.
Single-day tickets range from $15 to $18, and throughout the weekend, children 12 and younger get in free.
For more information about the Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts, visit www.JFFA.org or phone 360-457-5411.
________
Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3550 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
