NSU student creates 2012 Festival of Lights poster | Arts & Culture

An oil painting by Northwestern State University student Anna Dieter of Natchitoches was chosen as this year's official poster for the Natchitoches Christmas Festival. The painting will be unveiled to the public at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 9 at Dickens and Company, 516 Front St., sponsored by the City of Natchitoches and the Natchitoches Arts Council.

The painting is Dieter’s interpretation of this year’s Festival theme, “Louisiana Bicentennial.”

“Since the theme is the Bicentennial, I put everything I could think of that has to do with Louisiana in the painting,” Dieter said.  “There is something everyone can relate to.”

Dieter is a senior majoring in fine and graphic art. She has been painting as long as she can remember and became serious about her work as a high school student at Natchitoches Central.  As a high school senior, she won Best in Show at her Youth Art Council of America (YACA) convention.   Dieter’s work is frequently commissioned and she hopes to operate her own studio after graduation.

Numbered prints of the 2012 Christmas Festival poster will be available and on sale this fall for $35. The Natchitoches Christmas Festival Poster has been a tradition for 32 years.  All the original artwork can be viewed at the Natchitoches Arts Council office located at Community Development (City Hall Annex), 420 Fourth Street.

For more information on this year’s unveiling, contact Nancy McDowell at (318) 357-3838.