SEQUIM — Posters for the 15th Sequim Lavender Festival — graced with artwork by Chris Witkowski, who created “Flora” for the Port Townsend Farmers Market — are on sale now.
The $10 posters and $5 buttons for the festival organized by the Sequim Lavender Growers Association can be found at the Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce, 1192 E. Washington St.; the lavender growers’ festival office in the back of 237 N. Sequim Ave.; or online at www.lavenderfestival.com.
The 15th Sequim Lavender Festival is one of two festivals planned during Sequim’s “lavender weekend” July 15-17.
The poster features a woman in a flamboyant headdress sitting in a chair in a lavender field reading a festival schedule.
Mona on poster
Her name, chosen by the festival’s president, Terry Stolz, is Mona.
“She’s a boomer with an attitude” who is not based on any real person, said Paul Jendrucko, who is handling media relations for the growers’ association’s festival.
“It’s the tourist who comes in and wants to enjoy the fields and fragrance of lavender, and she’s reading the guide about where to go next, what to do next,” he said.
“She’s our poster child.”
Festival Director Mary Jendrucko and Dona Green of lavender-growing Greenhill Farm will make headwear resembling the lavender-adorned headdress Mona wears.
Not only do they plan to wear them during the festival, but they also will have a few for sale at the Sequm Lavender Festival’s food, music, lavender products and crafts fair on Fir Street between Sequim Avenue and Third Avenue.
“We’re not going to make lots of them,” Mary Jendrucko said.
“It’ll just be a fun thing.”
The poster artist, Witkowski, is a longtime favorite in Port Townsend who now lives in northern California.
She is known for vibrant paintings of people with a bounty of flowers and vegetables cascading from lavish headwear — such as “Flora,” the image adopted by the Port Townsend Farmers Market.
Witkowski “has brought the importance of local agriculture to us through the viewers’ eyes in vivid brush strokes,” Paul Jendrucko said.
“She is the perfect fit for what we are trying to say this year: Lavender has a place in farming and in our farming history and touches our personal lives for a relaxing and enjoyable experience,” he said.
Witkowski also created the poster for the 2008 Wooden Boat Festival and for the annual Jefferson County Farm Tour.
On her website, www.chriswitkowski.com, she counts among her clients Nash’s Organic Produce, the Organic Seed Alliance, Pane d’Amore bakery and Port Townsend Brewing Co.
“We expect our poster art to be the most popular ever and plan on selling out,” Paul Jendrucko said.
“We will keep ‘Mona’ around. She holds an important place in our festival history and plans for the future.”
In addition to the street fair, the Sequim Lavender Festival — the original festival for the lavender weekend, produced by the Sequim Lavender Growers Association — will offer free, self-guided tours of lavender farms.
The Sequim Lavender Farm Association, which broke off from the growers’ group earlier this year, will host the other festival — the Sequim Lavender Farm Faire — during the July 15-17 “lavender weekend.”
Its vendor fair with lavender and lavender products, food, crafts and music will be based at Carrie Blake Park/Reuse Demonstration Park.
The farm association’s tour will be by bus and cost $10 for advance tickets, $15 during the fair weekend.
No admission will be charged for children 12 and younger. Tickets for active military personnel and their dependants will be $10 at all times.
For information about the Sequim Lavender Festival, visit www.lavenderfestival.com or phone the Jendruckos at 360-582-1907.
For information on the Sequim Lavender Farm Faire, visit www.sequimlavenderfarms.org, email info@sequimlavenderfarms.org or phone 360-452-6300.
