Hear Ye, Hear Ye, Spring is Here by Aron Lowe

With the cancellation of the 2020 festival, the chance to celebrate Aron Lowe and her wonderful piece “Dutch Dance,” was swept away. “Any of our winning artists will tell you there is an element of fun and notoriety that goes along with being named the winner of the festival artwork competition,” stated Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time Executive Director. “Unfortunately this year, we didn’t have that chance to celebrate Aron and her art.” Therefore, Tulip Time decided to pause the competition for the coming year, and instead commission Aron to design a companion piece to her winning 2020 work to become the official festival artwork for 2021. This is not a new concept for Tulip Time, as prior to 2011, festival artwork had been commissioned. Companion pieces have also been popular in the past, as evidenced by the continued popularity of the 1999 and 2000 pieces featuring Big Red and DeZwaan.

Aron’s new artwork for 2021, "Hear Ye, Hear Ye, Spring is Here" is a celebration of the coming spring and many of the fun parade elements of the festival: The Town Crier, bands, street scrubbing, and dogs in Dutch costumes! She chose bright, sunny colors and enjoyed playing with pattern and abstraction. This piece is a departure from her usual medium (felted wool sculpture) and is a colorfully fun composition that is both retro and contemporary. When asked about her process for creating “Here Ye, Hear Ye, Spring is Here”, Lowe explains, “I spent some time looking through vintage Tulip Time advertisements and old WPA and travel posters, and just a lot of abstract design to get inspiration about how to go about distilling the rather complicated idea of a parade down into something that would fit my design aesthetic. And then I let things happen...”

The Tulip Time Festival office will have exciting new merchandise, including notecards, ornaments, and coffee mugs that feature Aron’s latest piece, and will arrive in time for Black Friday holiday shopping! Visit our website and shop online at https://store.tuliptime.com