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Arts on the Square announces poster

The winner of this year’s Arts on the Square Poster Contest is no stranger to art shows and galleries.

The winning entry is a watercolor image by Marie App, of Ogdensburg.

“The Arts on the Square image is meant to be a light, happy, arty caricature watercolor that represents the joyful mood of the people attending this annual event,” she said.

App’s artwork is gracing all the publicity for this year’s Arts on the Square, and prints of her artwork will also be for sale at the Aug. 17 event.

In addition, the design will be on an eco-friendly shopping bag.

Those who donate $10 or more to the Waupaca Community Arts Board, prior to this year’s arts festival, will receive the bag ahead of time.

A limited number of bags will also be available the day of the festival, for $10.

Those who want to receive a bag before the event may mail their donation – written out to WCAB – to the Waupaca Community Arts Board, P.O. Box 88, Waupaca, WI 54981.

A name, address and phone number should be included with the donation in order to learn where to pick up the bag.

The Waupaca Community Arts Board is the organizer of the arts festival, and this year marks the seventh annual event.

Arts on the Square includes artwork, music, workshops and food. It is held on the city square in downtown Waupaca.

App incorporated the various aspects of the festival in her winning image.

“I tried to think of all the things that go on at an art festival like that,” she said. “The important things are music, food and artists and gifts.”

When App goes to Arts on the Square, she enjoys walking around and seeing all it has to offer.

“I check all the artist booths, of course. Listen to the music and pick up a good lunch,” she said.

App was an elementary student when she realized how much she enjoyed art.

“I’ve liked art, or known that I’ve liked art, since fourth grade,” she said. “Teachers always asked me to do drawings or to decorate bulletin boards.”

Her parents also encouraged her.

“Whenever I asked my father what he wanted for his birthday or Christmas, he said, ‘Just draw me a picture,'” she said.

App, a Stevens Point native, began her art career by taking education courses at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

After one year there, she continued her education in Milwaukee, receiving her Bachelor of arts degree at Alverno College. Then, she studied at UW-Madison, where she received her Master of Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees.

App studied under three internationally known printmakers – Warrington Colescott, Ray Gloeckler and Dean Meeker.

She taught at the high school and college level. In addition, she developed an art syllabus and course of study for two high school art departments, organized and taught art education workshops for teachers and became Educational Specialist for Families in Education in Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction.

App is called upon to act as an art exhibit judge for area art clubs and galleries.

She designed the 16 floor-to-ceiling stained glass windows in the convent chapel in Stevens Point, which is now the UW-Stevens Point Neuman Parish Church.

For the last 20 years, App has painted watercolor and oil painings for shows in Wisconsin galleries.

She sells her work at those shows and at her home studio.

App’s award-winning paintings hang in eight clinics and corporations.

Two Wisconsin poets have commissioned her to illustrate their eight chapbooks.

She has also designed greeting cards for Heartstep Greeting Card Co., and five of her oil paintings have become cover designs for “Bee Culture” and “American Bee Journal” national magazines.

App received her latest award this year for a 30×30 oil painting in the Midwest Seasons Exhibition sponsored by the Center of Visual Arts, in Wausau.

Two of her oil paintings are part of the juried show, “Culture and Agriculture,” currently shown at the Visions Gallery in the Marshfield Clinic.

Her recent series of 15 30×30 oil paintings are called “Landforms” and are representational paintings meant to invoke a sense of appreciation of the land.

Her work is at five different gallieries in Wisconsin, and she tries to have a one-woman show at least once a year.

“I am committed to the idea of continually changing and growing – I don’t want to be painting the same thing five years from now, but something new that I can’t anticipate today,” App said.

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