By Maria Toimil
“As president of the Valley of the Moon Vintage Festival, I work hard to preserve the history of our small town. Recently I ran across a “vintage’ Vintage Festival poster that I had never seen before. I thought it was beautiful. The poster did not have a year on it anywhere and was a bit worn. We chose to reproduce the poster and have it for sale at this year’s upcoming event, Sept 28th -30th.
“To hopefully, get more information on the poster, I hung it behind my desk today at work. Customers often complement our artwork, so I thought they might look at this and enjoy it as well. One morning a gentleman came up and asked who the artist was on the mystery poster. I told him Anne Shepard. With a tear coming to his eye, he replied, “She was my sister”. We talked for a bit. He told me that she had created the artwork in 1969, the year she graduated Sonoma Valley High School. He has many of his sister’s art pieces and was able to pick this one out because of the “signature face” she created. Then he explained why he was getting emotional; you see, she has since passed. I gave him several of the 1969 posters so that he could share with his family.
“I am very fortunate, I have been given the opportunity to preserve my town’s history and the artwork of a fellow Sonoman. We now know the year of the poster, 1969, and we have made another local connection.”
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