North Charleston Arts Fest Reveals 2022 Poster Design Competition Winner

Press Release

The City of North Charleston Cultural Arts Department is pleased to announce Deborah Kinard of Kiawah Island, as the winner of the 2022 North Charleston Arts Fest Poster Design Competition.  As the winner of the statewide contest, Kinard’s mixed media painting, titled Memories 222, will be used to promote the 2022 North Charleston Arts Fest, taking place May 4-8.  In addition, the artist was awarded a $500 cash prize and the piece has become part of the City of North Charleston’s Public Art Collection. 

Memories 222 was one of 80 entries by artists from 17 cities across South Carolina that were submitted for consideration for the 2022 North Charleston Arts Fest Poster Design Competition. The mixed media piece was created using paint and pen and incorporates collage, stenciling, and stamping techniques. “As a long-time supporter of the North Charleston Arts Fest, both as a former educator that brought my students to experience the event and as a practicing artist that has entered and won several awards in the Judged Fine Art Competition, it is a great honor for my artwork to represent this year’s festival,” Deborah says. “I believe the layers, textures, patterns, and colors in my work reflect the vibrancy and diversity that the event brings to our community each year.”

Recently retired from a 37-year career as an elementary and middle school teacher, Deborah Kinard has transformed her life-long passion for art from a pastime to a full-time endeavor, creating every day from her home studio on Kiawah Island. Curiosity, nature, and love of color inspire her work, which is often abstract, experimental, and produced through a layering process using a variety of substrates and materials. Deborah really enjoys experimenting with handmade papers, inks, hand-carved stamps, and various consistencies of paint.  Her artwork typically initiates through her daily journaling practice, where she begins making marks intuitively and adding layers of colors and materials to create a journal spread.  Sometimes these ideas become a bigger piece of artwork on canvas, paper, or wood.  Through this process she finds her work constantly evolving. Deborah has participated in many artist guild and juried exhibitions throughout the Lowcountry and has received numerous awards over the years. She is a member of the Charleston Artist Guild, Kiawah Artist Guild, Folly Beach Artist Guild, and the South Carolina Artisan’s Center, where her work is currently in display and available for purchase. View her work on Instagram @deborahkinardart.

A collection of Deborah Kinard’s mixed media works will be on display at Park Circle Gallery May 4-27, 2022. The exhibit will feature her winning piece, Memories 222. The gallery is located 4820 Jenkins Avenue in North Charleston. Admission and parking are free. The public is invited to meet the artist at the gallery at a free reception on Friday, May 6, 2022, from 5:00-7:00pm. The reception occurs concurrently with the Arts Fest Arty Block Party, which takes place just around the corner from the gallery that evening on East Montague Avenue from 5-8:30pm. T-shirts and posters featuring the winning design will be available for purchase during the festival.

For more information about the North Charleston Arts Fest or other competition and exhibition opportunities, contact the City of North Charleston Cultural Arts Department at (843)740-5854, email culturalarts@northcharleston.org, or visit NorthCharlestonArtsFest.com.

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