‘IMAGINE IF …’

Can you imagine if chickens could hula hoop, a cow could play the piano and that cotton candy clouds could float over the Palmer farmlands?

Well, Sharon Allen can.

Her captivating imagination and artistic talent has earned her the honor of being the poster design artist for the 2010 Alaska State Fair. Her playful rendering in watercolor of “Imagine If” is featured in this year’s promotional material and memorabilia for the fair in Palmer, which opens Aug. 26 and runs through Sept. 6. There will be a public showing of Sharon’s artwork and a signing of the poster at the Shane Lamb Studio in downtown Palmer, during the Valley Second Saturday events tomorrow from 4:30 to 7 p.m.

When articulating the design process, Sharon reveals, “I started out wanting the theme ‘dancing with the steers’ … (which led to) developing an imaginary theme. I started with the Frank Lloyd Wright concept of superimposed circles, which I turned into balloons. Then I … moved the fair into the balloons, (creating) an imaginary fair as a child might perhaps see it — all of the animals doing the things at the fair that people do.”

Embarking on the project in June 2009, Sharon engaged the interest of Dean Phipps, Alaska State Fair marketing director, with her rendition of a band and its lead-guitar sheep “with attitude.” This joviality set the theme in motion.

“The cow playing the piano has the spots on his cape instead of himself, the chickens have the spiked colored hair, the cotton candy is flying away and turning into clouds, the children on the carousel are riding on moose, the Ferris wheel has seats that are fire crackers and a small girl catches the strings on the balloons to hitch a ride to the imaginary fair,” explains Sharon.

When asked about the design particulars, Sharon admits “the hardest part was tying the bottom to the top.” Her solution was a tractor pulling the letters (with wheels) going to the Imaginary fair at the bottom of the poster.

Generally speaking about various mediums that she uses, Sharon says she enjoys the portability of watercolor, which “is the least messy and easiest to travel with.” She often transports a work in progress back and forth on weekends from the family’s summer home.

“Studying color relationships and different combinations has always been … the most intriguing part of art,” she says. “You can use color to whisper or shout.”

“I think I spend half of my time either studying color or mixing paint,” she said.

That Sharon gets great pleasure from the fine arts is apparent in her daily activities.

“Two (areas) I receive the most enjoyment out of in life are involvement in church music and painting,” she says in explaining that she is directing the St. John Lutheran Church’s Bell Choir in Palmer and has been active as a church musician since high school.

Her college background in music and art string across the country from a degree at Minnesota Art Illustration School, where she received the 93rd Outstanding Alumni Award in 2008, to Mat-Su College in Palmer, where she has taken multiple classes and workshops from many notable artists, such as oil painter Dean M. Larson.

After Sharon created her favorite piece titled “Why the Team Wins” for the Iditarod cachet, the painting was juried into the Alaska Watercolor Society Show in 2008 to hang in the Rasmuson Museum of History and Art in Anchorage. It was selected from many hundreds of entries.

About the Iditarod painting she discloses, “I love the story the painting tells, … showing a winning musher … kissing his dog after the race. To me, the biggest challenge in painting is creating a story that is meaningful.”

Sharon has spent many years in volunteer work for the community both in Palmer and formerly in Fairbanks, where she was president of the College of Fellows and served as a trustee for the University of Alaska statewide. She now serves on the Fine Arts Advisory Council for Mat-Su College.

Sharon and husband, Bill, have eight children, their spouses and 11 grandchildren, who she says are a great joy to her.

She explains that devoting time to painting was not easy while raising a family, but she managed to win a ribbon for a charcoal portrait drawing in Fairbanks at the Tanana Valley Fair when the kids were young.

When traveling, Sharon confides that visiting art museums such as The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., is a priority. There she sees her second favorite da Vinci painting called “Ginevra de’ Benci,” which is the only painting by Leonardo on American soil. (The Mona Lisa is her favorite, which she saw at the Louvre in Paris in the 1970s.)

“I found out at an early age that what I could write with my right hand forward could be done with my left hand backwards,” she says. “It just was interesting to me, and (then) I found out that Leonardo da Vinci also could mirror image his reading and writing.”

Unmistakably, Sharon, like Leonardo, is an innovator, and her art reflects a dedication of things to come.

Suzanne Bach teaches art at Mat-Su College.