PA L E S T I N E C H A M B E R.O RG
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William Young
P
alestine is home to some pretty interesting
people, doing some out-of-the-ordinary things.
William Young is certainly one of these people.
You saw him gracing the cover of last year’s Presenting
Palestine magazine, sitting in front of an image of one of
his paintings, The Space Between, now part of the Nau
Art Collection in Houston.
As a fundraising idea, former Chamber Director
Michele Merryman Bell approached Young to do a series
of posters for the annual Dogwood Festival, which
Michele expanded to include art and music. Her idea was
to feature busker-type musicians playing on Palestine’s
downtown street corners. She suggested the posters
could feature the same theme.
“I never thought about doing anything like that
before,” Young said, “But Michele was my muse. Her
idea to create a series of five posters over five years
to celebrate the Dogwood Festival really took fire in
my imagination. I immediately saw all five posters in my
mind, like turning the pages of a book.”
The posters feature animal musicians standing in for
people in imaginative scenarios. In the first of the series,
an iconic Texas armadillo playing an accordion and a
raccoon playing a bass make up the Roadkill Band.
Young said the painting was really fun to do. “The
musicians are playing in front of a building that is a
composite of several historic structures in downtown
Palestine. Dogwood trees flank the building, and single
dogwood flowers rain down from the sky in a surrealistic
homage to some of my favorite painters.”
The new Chamber President/CEO Tish Shade
enthusiastically embraced the concept upon taking up
her position in September. After being given a sneak
peek at the preliminary sketch for the next poster, she
immediately loved the idea. “I think it’s an incredible
opportunity to showcase the work of one of our
Chamber members. As a fundraiser, it was wonderfully
successful, and I can only imagine what excitement it will
bring next year to add to the series. The limited edition
of 100 posters nearly sold out during this year’s festival.
We only have a handful of the signed and numbered
prints left.”
As part of their agreement, the Chamber printed the
posters, and Young reserved the original painting, which
he sold this last summer in a show at the Foltz Fine Art
gallery in Houston.
Young’s second painting in the series is to be unveiled
in March 2020.
“We are hard at work on next year’s Dogwood
Festival,” Tish Shade reports.
“We plan to start taking
advanced orders for the
second poster after the first
of the year for the people
who want to reserve a
particular number in the set,
which is a popular way to
collect a whole series. The
Chamber is grateful and
honored to be a part of this
partnership with William.”