2019 Festival Featured Artist: Ramon Shiloh

American author, illustrator and storyteller Ramon Shiloh is the 2019 Skagit River Salmon Festival’s featured artist. Shiloh’s artwork, titled Salmon Run, represents “the life of the sockeye, coho, chum, pink and Chinook swimming against the force of the river bed; leaping to reach its destination.”

“Leaping with our tired and determined sockeye, Salmon Spirit is a reminder their life-cycle continues on,” Shiloh explained.

Shiloh has illustrated several award-winning books including The Otter, the Spotted Frog & the Great Flood, which is a mythical story based in America before humans existed on earth, and ends with the creation of First Man and First Woman.

Shiloh’s other activities include support for arts programs related to minority issues. His contributions to Native youth projects include serving as a mentor for the “Young Native Voices Theater Education Project” in Los Angeles. He was honored as a facilitator and storyteller for the Underground Railroad Research Program titled “A Trail of Tears” in 2000 working with Rosa Parks.

Ramon Shiloh’s Salmon Run poster was created using colored pencils and ink.

Shiloh has produced and directed planetarium shows for the Minolta Planetarium in Cupertino, Calif., for the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center at Balboa Park in San Diego, and for the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) in Portland, Ore. He has also worked as the arts and culture editor for ColorsNW magazine and illustrated a monthly comic strip titled “Life Without Colors.”

Please visit Shiloh’s booth where he will be signing commemorative Festival posters featuring the Salmon Run artwork.