'An emotional painting': Venetian Festival art tugs on Charlevoix's heartstrings
CHARLEVOIX — Charlevoix crafter Gayle Levengood has been chosen as this year’s Venetian Artist, and posters of the painting she has created for the festival have been tugging at the heartstrings of many local residents.
Levengood’s creation is the 22nd painting to be selected as the annual logo for Charlevoix’s largest event of the year, the Venetian Festival. The festival is a weeklong series of concerts, sporting games and carnival rides that brings nearly 100,000 people to a city with only 2,500 year-round residents.
The Venetian Festival painting is an original piece of artwork hand-picked to be emblazoned on event t-shirts and brochures and auctioned off to the highest bidder, raising funds for next year’s activities. With a distinctly unique take, sales of Levengood’s mixed media creation have outpaced that of previous years.
What makes Levengood’s piece so impactful to those in Charlevoix is the subject matter she chose to incorporate.
One focal point of the painting is the face of a young woman. A black and white image of a smiling former Miss Charlevoix, Kari Way, who passed away unexpectedly in a boating accident in 2015 at the age of 27.
“The first thing I thought of was Kari,” said Gayle Levengood, who had known Kari since being her preschool teacher, as she described being asked to create this year’s Venetian Festival painting.
“Kari symbolized everything that Venetian means for so many people,” Levengood added.
Way was crowned Charlevoix’s Venetian Queen in 2005, and it is an image from her coronation that Levengood placed in the center of her painting, surrounded by a silver heart topped with a crown.
In addition to Way’s visage, Levengood has incorporated other evocative images of military service men and an American flag on a large sailboat floating in Round Lake. A hazy scene from a Venetian Festival concert can also be found on one of the boat’s masts. Rather than in the sky, as Venetian paintings in the past have realistically depicted, Levengood has the festival fireworks exploding on the vessel's hull. A Petoskey stone is hidden in the lake water below and in the background details of Charlevoix’s downtown are depicted in minutia.
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One of the many community members who were touched by Levengood’s creation this year is Kari Way’s mother, Kris Way.
When asked what she thought her daughter's impression of the painting would be, Kris said, “I think Kari would feel very honored and grateful — she loved Charlevoix and was always so proud of her hometown. Kari knew she was blessed to grow up in such a beautiful town and it was always in her heart — no matter how far away from home she was. She always longed to come home. Venetian was the homecoming she looked forward to most.”
Levengood’s original painting will be sold at auction after the Miss Charlevoix coronation in the Odmark Pavilion on Wednesday, July 19. Those wanting to place a silent bid or arrange for a proxy can call Anne Golski at (231) 675-2164.
Complete festival event listings can be found in the printed festival booklets and flyers around town, as well as at venetianfestival.com.
— Contact reporter Annie Doyle at (231)675-0099 or adoyle@charlevoixcourier.com. Follow her on Twitter, @adoylenews
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Charlevoix's Venetian Festival painting evokes memories and nostalgia
