McKenna Harford / mharford@skyhinews.com
“Sound of Music” fans won’t remember Maria von Trapp singing in the hills with a red Solo cup in hand in the original movie, but according to local artist Shannon Foley Henn, that’s definitely how she would enjoy High Note Thursdays in Winter Park.
“Of course the Solo cup because that’s a staple at High Note,” Henn laughed.
For the second year in a row, Henn partnered with the Winter Park & Fraser Chamber of Commerce to create posters for the town’s summer event series, which kicks off this Thursday in Hideaway Park.
This year Henn was inspired to create something completely different from what she did the year before, so she turned to movies to infuse some campy humor into the event posters.
“In a lot of my paintings I like working in a bit of pop culture and there’s nothing more pop culture than famous, iconic movies,” she said. “When we were picking the movies, we were looking for movies that would resonate with a lot of different generations.”
The movies featured are “The Sound of Music,” “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” “Jurassic Park,” “Winnie the Pooh,” “Indiana Jones,” “Wonder Woman,” “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial,” “Flashdance,” “Forrest Gump,” “Star Wars” and “Nacho Libre.”
The summer event series includes High Note Thursdays, Fitness in the Park, Switchback Music Festival, Rendezvous Run for Independence, the town’s Fourth of July celebration, Winter Park Uncorked, Tequila and Tacos, the Jazz Festival, the Solshine Festival, Country in the Park and FallFest.
Each poster also references local landmarks, such as Berthoud Pass, Winter Park Resort, the Rendezvous Event Center and Parry’s Peak, as well as Henn’s own artwork.
“The big thing for me is not only do I want to paint with a smile on my face, I want people to look at them and have a smile on their face,” she said. “My pieces are really pop and fun and whimsical and colorful and it all culminated into these movie posters.”
The original canvas paintings will be available to purchase at auction through the mobile app Handbid until Aug. 25. Each painting starts at $350 and funds will go to the continuation of the summer event series, with the exception of the Winter Park Uncorked poster, which will go to the Grand Foundation’s G.A.P fund, and the FallFest poster, which will go to the Grand Kids Learning Center.
A limited number of each painting will also be printed as posters, which will be sold at the event, as well as at Henn’s store, Uptripping, and the Winter Park Visitor’s Center.