Picture perfect
Emily Street ('09) creates a prizewinning poster
By Sarah Mead ('09)
Emily Street ('09) won the City of Harrisonburg's "Picture Downtown" art contest, and her design (below) is the first official poster for the City of Harrisonburg. Photograph by David Lonnquest ('11)Harrisonburg has found its first official city poster, and the designer is Emily Street ('09). The May graduate earned her bachelor's degree in fine arts with a concentration in printmaking and a minor in French.
Street is the winner of the "Picture Downtown" art contest, and her screen print drawing of Harrisonburg has been replicated into a poster and printed by contest sponsor Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance.
Street heard about the city's poster contest from a classmate. After completing a cityscape of her parents' town, Chalon-sur-Saone, France, she felt the poster contest would be a good next step. But she had to scramble; she only found out about the contest a week before the deadline.
Her prizewinning picture is a screen print, which is an extensive process that requires patience and a steady hand. "Screen print drawing is a process that satisfies many different aspects about the way I like to create art," says Street. "I almost always like the outcome, and if not, the process to get there is good. It can be very meditative."
Street's family has had a huge influence on her art interests. "My mom is a good artist, and my older sister is a graphic designer and JMU graduate. I grew up appreciating culture and the art world. There are many different types of beauty."
Street's replicated poster can be purchased for $10 at Rocktown Gift Shoppe at 212 S. Main St. in Harrisonburg.
Early in her Madison Experience, Street decided on an interior design concentration within her fine arts degree, but she quickly switched to printmaking after finding Lithography was her favorite class.
She is very optimistic about the preparation JMU has given her for entrance into the real world of art. "JMU has a great art department. Having many different concentrations within studio art has allowed me to pursue a track that I never even knew about," she says. "As you get into the upper-level art classes you fine-tune your skills and your thinking, and you can see how the program gets you ready for the real world."
