The Virginia Beach Neptune Festival is pleased to announce that the 37th Annual Neptune Festival commemorative poster is now available. Hampton Roads’ artist Betsy DiJulio was commissioned for the original artwork. The 2010 posters are 18” x 24” and suitable for framing.
They can be purchased for $25 each or $40 for a signed limited edition poster at the Festival office at 265 Kings Grant Road, Suite #102 in Virginia Beach. They will also be available during Boardwalk Weekend, September 24 – 26, 2010.
This year’s untitled original painting, from which the poster was made, is acrylic painted over collaged fragments of a Virginia Beach oceanfront map on board. Raised rectangular panels add to the dynamic quality of the energetic image and were actually suggested by the artist’s husband to obliquely reference vacation postcards. In the painting, details of signature architectural elements from the Virginia Beach Boardwalk—a lamppost with striped banner and a section of the railing—provide the organizing framework for references to some of the Festival’s largest and most well-known events that take place on or near the Boardwalk. A detail of the sculpture of King Neptune at 31st Street, including his turtle and one of the octopi, is joined by a bunch of balloons that reference the Festival parade, a cluster of white tents that give a nod to the Art & Craft Show, and fireworks that pay tribute to the Festival’s culminating show. The Festival’s logo is painted in the center of a compass rose that relates to the map fragments and speaks to the importance of place in regard to the Festival.
DiJulio, her husband Joe and the couple’s canine family have made their home in Virginia Beach since 1990. Just after earning her M.A. in art history from Vanderbilt University in 1991, DiJulio was hired by the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia where she served as the organization’s award-winning education director until 2002. Then, having earned her Ed.S. in Curriculum and Instruction from The George Washington University a couple of years prior, she was hired by the Virginia Beach City Public Schools where she served as the district’s Partnership Coordinator before being hired in 2004 as an art teacher at Princess Anne High School where she is currently employed. Her work teaching a variety of media to all levels, as well as her community involvement, led to her selection as the VBCPS citywide Teacher of the Year for 2010. Since 2002, DiJulio has also combined her passion for art and design, the environment, animals and vegan cooking into an art-time freelance writing career. As an artist, DiJulio was first known in the area for her large oil pastels and, now, for her layered mixed-media paintings. Using a rich earthy color palette, hints of “magic realism” and ambiguous but not impenetrable metaphorical content, she explores issues at those points where the personal, psychological, societal and political all intersect. This is the first commemorative design that DiJulio has created for the Neptune Festival, though she has served as the official artist of the Virginia Beach Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon since 2002.
Posters can be purchased at the Festival office at 265 Kings Grant Road, Suite #102 in Virginia Beach. They will also be available during Boardwalk Weekend, September 24 – 26, 2010. For more information, call 757/498-0215
About The Neptune Festival: The award winning Virginia Beach Neptune Festival began in 1974 and has blossomed over the years into the city’s largest event and one of the most successful festivals on the East Coast. It has continued to be recognized as among the top 100 celebrations in the nation and continuously ranked as one of the top festivals in the region. Each year, the Neptune Festival attracts hundreds of thousands of people to the Virginia Beach oceanfront and generated approximately $18 million in economic impact for the City of Virginia Beach. Now in its 37th year, the Virginia Beach Neptune Festival is produced by a private non-profit organization and directed by a volunteer Board of Directors. Support and funding for the event comes from the community at large and corporate sponsorships. For more information on the 37h Annual Neptune Festival, please call the Festival office at 1-866-NEP-FEST or visit www.neptunefestival.com.
