Mullet Festival Seeks Poster Art

The Gautier Mullet and Music Fest wants local artists to break out their easels and get to work. It needs new art to go with its new name.

The festival's committee is now accepting entries for its annual poster contest.

Each year the committee selects a piece that creatively represents the festival's theme: "Celebrating Our Coastal Heritage."

The winning piece is then replicated on 100 limited edition movie posters to be sold during the two-day event.

The winning artist will receive $300 and 15 posters. The winner will also be required to attend the first day of the festival, Oct. 18, to number and autograph all the posters.

"The posters are very exclusive," said Anna Simpson, chairwoman of the Gautier Mullet and Music Fest. "Once they are out there, they are all collectibles ... We get the same people, and they get them year to year, so they have the whole collection."

Simpson said the committee usually receives 15 to 20 entries each year but has zero as of Monday with the mid-August deadline approaching.

Submissions are judged on "theme representation" and "design principles" and must contain the following elements:

n The name of the festival must be on the piece. This year, the name has changed from "Gautier Mullet Festival" to "Gautier Mullet & Music Fest." Entries without the correct name of the festival will not be accepted. The name can be any size, orientation and located anywhere the artist desires.

n Entries must include the year, 2008, and theme, "Celebrating Our Coastal Heritage." The term "18th Annual" may be included, but it is at the artist's discretion. As with the name, these items can be sized and located anywhere.

n The most important artistic element of the poster "must encompass a fun festival feeling."

n The piece must feature the festival's trademark fish, the mullet, "somewhere as a focal point of artwork."

The poster should be approximately 14 inches by 20 inches and may be landscape or portrait orientation. Any "Art professional media" --water color, oil, photographs, etc. -- may be used.

"The Gulf Coast is a very artistic community, and we like to draw on that local talent," Simpson said. "We've had winners all along the coast, from Slidell to Hurley. We feel like giving our local artists that shot to get their name out there and show us what they can do."

Artists should include contact information and a short biography with their work for publicity purposes, in case their piece is selected the winner.

On occasion the second-place art is printed on T-shirts. This has happened the last two years of the competition.

June 23, 2008