Each year the festival asks an individual artist to create a theme related art piece. This piece is then used on all commemorative festival merchandise.
This year’s Ithaca Festival artist choice offers a unique and contemporary twist to the Festival’s images and design – the Festival is featuring an emerging, student artist as the Official Festival Artist, Ithaca native, Meghan Wood. “I am really, really honored to be asked this year. Young art is starting to erupt in Ithaca and there is a very cool movement happening. I am excited to bring a new energy to this year’s design and the Festival as a whole,” said Meghan.
Meghan was born and raised in Ithaca, NY. “Ithaca is a great place to grow up if you enjoy art. It’s a beautiful place and Ithaca has such a great community of people.” Her mother has always been very supportive of everything she does in addition to also being a yearly attendee of the Ithaca Festival. “My mother has been dragging me to the festival since I was 2 years old. It’s funny to have grown up as a bystander and now getting to be a part of it in a different way.” Meghan has always felt drawn to the creative side of life; however, she didn’t know that it was what she wanted to pursue professionally until recently. “It just feels right to be creative,” said Meghan. Meghan is currently in her first year as a graphic design major at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). When not pursuing art, Meghan plays the keyboard in the local band, Kin Ship.
She enjoys being able to see what she has created with her hands, as opposed to on the computer. Meghan is very influenced by the sign painting world, traditional calligraphy and the traditional, handmade craftsmanship of art. This might influence why Meghan is best known for her work in sign painting, hand lettering and typography. Meghan’s local projects include a lot of sign painting and work for music festivals. She has been doing the artwork for the Finger Lakes Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance for the past two years and is currently working on designs for the Shakori Hills Grassroots Music Festival in North Carolina. In addition she designed the marketing and signage materials for the new Grassroots Festival in Miami Fl. You may also remember her t-shirt work from last years Ithaca Festival graphic tee.
In high school, Meghan was given the opportunity to paint murals on the walls of her school. Upon graduating from the Lehman Alternative Community School a year early, Meghan traveled for four years, beginning in New Zealand where she worked at a non-profit community garden. She continued her travels to Chicago, New Orleans and Olympia, Washington working with other non-profits including the Obama campaign. She didn’t know that art was what she wanted to pursue until she was in New Zealand and had the chance to paint signs for the community garden. She started incorporating art into her life more and more until she realized that was her passion.
For this year’s art design, Meghan thought the Luau theme ties well into the natural beauty of Ithaca, making it easy to bring elements such as Ithaca’s water into the design. “There are so many beautiful scenes to work with in Ithaca”, commented Meghan on her inspiration behind this year’s design. On commenting on her participation with this year’s festival, “I am psyched to bring some new, hip and fresh ideas to the table,” said Meghan.
Her work can be viewed on this year’s Official 2012 Ithaca Festival Commemorative Merchandise to be released on May 4th. Merchandise will be available for sale prior to the Festival at Wegmans and other local stores as well as at the Ithaca Farmers’ Market.
