Meet This Year’s Festival Poster Artist Cheyanne Donald

The Scotts Valley Chamber of Commerce is thrilled to announce this year’s poster artist, Cheyanne Donald. Cheyanne is super excited to be sharing her art this year. “After feeling like all I do is make art for my cats, there’s a moment of, ‘oh man, people like me, they really like me!’”, says Cheyanne.

She says her art is based on “the feeling of things — places you know and love made into a vision of what I think they would be like if you knew them.”

Cheyanne describes her work as “a little dramatic, flirty, spooky, always fun, filled with historical and fun fact illustrations that are hidden in each piece.”

When asked to work on this year’s poster, she first jumped up and down excitedly, and then went to work on making sure all of the details that were asked of her were included, but also, that it had a reflection of how she creates, “telling a story and giving us an idea of the process, while hiding all the pieces in sight.”

Inspired by pop art, street art, nouveau, folk imagery and the movement of fashion illustration, she pushes her ideas constantly and challenges herself to find something new to say each time she makes something, no matter how simple or complicated the image. She’s thrilled by a unique color way, or a subject that makes her think differently than what’s just on the surface.

“There’s a hidden gem in everyday things, something to be explored, or dreamed of all the time,” says Cheyanne. “I never stop creating, even when I think I’m going to sleep, or eating dinner, my brain is constantly pulling from the experiences, people, animals and places that I’ve come across and what they would look like, feel like, be like as illustrations.”

Cheyanne says that she loves the feeling of pen to paper, ink and paints gliding across a canvas and the satisfaction of painting digitally. It’s all important, equal, and useful. There is no art or creative tool that she won’t use to get her vision across.

Be sure to come check out Cheyanne’s work at this year’s Scotts Valley Art Wine and Beer Festival. Her booth will be located at the very center of the Festival, marked with a star on the map.