Fuel UP for Your Spring Adventures! Fuel UP for Your Spring Adventures!

you only get outside a big city – going out to Skagit so often in the last couple years feels similar and I understand why someone would move or stay there. My parents would take me to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival when I was little so I grew up with it, as most people do in the Puget Sound area. In my subconscious, it’s something that’s just part of spring - green leaves, sprouts, nesting animals, chicks, and the Tulip Festival.”

Kerry holds a natural science illustration certificate from the University of Washington and a B.S. in physics from Yale. Before she became a painter she worked as a software developer for Microsoft, as an intern for NASA, and as a setter for WVBA

- one of the nation’s top youth volleyball clubs (and one of the 10 items Kerry hid in her painting for the 2023 poster).

As a realist, it was important to the artist to depict a true scene or experience that someone could have at the tulip fields in her painting. The Savannah sparrow is so ubiquitous that the males sing their mating calls all across the tulip fields. Said Kerry, “It’s almost impossible to miss them on a visit before afternoon. The sparrow in my painting is not a symbol, it’s a real thing, and a genuine tulip festival phenomenon.”

For her painting, Clavadetscher chose watercolor – the traditional medium for botanical illustration. Kerry elaborated, “I paint mostly acrylic or watercolor and I wanted a really intricate, detailed, and fine look for the tulips – my acrylic style, while detailed, is more impressionistic and heavy.”

“After I graduated from my illustration program in summer of 2019 I started work as a full-time artist. Then the pandemic hit, so I only did virtual shows in 2020. In 2021 I put up a booth and did the local art fair circuit: Anacortes, Edmonds, Shoreline, Magnuson (Seattle), and then my Dad had a stroke that totally shook my family. So, I became a caretaker in 2022. Now, with my mom able to do most of the caretaking duties I’ve resumed being an artist in 2023. In addition to several poster signings, the Scott-Milo Gallery in Anacortes will have an April exhibition featuring my more abstract paintings and The Cascadia Art Museum will host me for the Edmonds Art Walk in May.”

“I was excited and really happy about being chosen as the 2023 Tulip Festival artist. The timing was perfect overall with regard to my own emergence as an artist, the pandemic, my family’s hardship, the Savannah sparrow becoming more popular amongst photographers, and more. Right now, I’m feeling incredibly nervous and overwhelmed as I prepare for artist appearances and gallery shows but I am also so excited about all the poster signing events during the festival as well as those that I’ve lined up outside the official festival artist appearances.”

Learn more about Kerry and find times and locations for additional poster signing events on her website: https:// www.kerryclav.com/

Meet the artist:

Kevin Hartman of Westar Solutions worked with Kerry to transform her painting into the Tulip Festival poster. Hartman will also be designing official apparel and many other products using the poster art. Purchase your festival poster online or at the Tulip Festival Office at 311 W Kincaid St., Mount Vernon.

Kerry will be available to sign your poster during special guest appearances at the Tulip Festival office on April 27 between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. She will also be at RoozeenGarde and Tulip Town on Thursdays April 6, 13, and 20. Visit tulipfestival.org or call the festival office for specific times and locations.

3 Days Filled With Family Fun, Including:

Grand Parade, Entertainment, Kid Zone, Lawn Mower Races, Classic Car Show, Smoke & Grill BBQ Competition, Cornhole Tournament, Strawberry Shortcake, and much more!

Festival Merchandiser

The festival is pleased to have Westar Solutions return as the official Tulip Festival merchandising supplier. Based in Mount Vernon, Westar Solutions is a complete local source for graphics services from design to print, offering everything from business cards to vehicle wraps, signage, and fine art reproductions.

Classic Tulip Festival products such as coasters, T-shirts, stickers, mouse pads, and posters will be available. Westar is also bringing back highquality puzzles of the poster art that they produce in-house. With nearly 100% of merchandising now happening in Skagit County, the festival is able to offer a wider variety