Narrowsburg’s Holmes to be featured at EagleFest

NARROWSBURG, NY — The Delaware Valley Eagle Alliance, organizers of Narrowsburg’s EagleFest, have selected Narrowsburg’s own Frank Holmes as the featured artist for this year’s celebration, scheduled for January 14, 2006. Artists featured at previous festivals include Linda Slocum, Heidi Morse and Margo Spoerri.

Regular readers of The River Reporter know Holmes’ work from the paper’s editorial page: he is the creator of the quirky, brain-twisting Dr. Punnybone cartoons. But Holmes is also an internationally recognized painter whose works have been exhibited from New York City to the Grande Palais in Paris, France—not to mention in Narrowsburg at the River Gallery and the DVAA.

Holmes earned a BFA from the Pratt Institute in New York in 1962 and an MFA from Ohio University in 1972, and held successive teaching posts at Parsons School of Design in New York City, New York Institute of Technology, Ohio University, and C.W.Post Center of Long Island University. About 20 years ago, he moved from New York to Narrowsburg with his wife, Jill Mackie, also an artist. They were drawn to the area partly by the river, and partly by their house overlooking Little Lake Erie, an 1880s meeting hall with plenty of studio space for two artists.

The limited edition EagleFest poster will not be the first that Holmes has created for a local festival. Holmes regularly donates posters for auctions in both the EagleFest and the Riverfest celebrations. This year’s limited edition incorporates a painting that he made for a poster he contributed to EagleFest in 2000. “The illustration has been put into a new setting,” he said, “a different little world.” In fact, as of the time TRR interviewed Holmes, he was still working on compositional details, not reflected in the version shown here.

“I think the poster’s simplicity is its strength,” he said, “which makes getting everything right extra important.” It is an attention to detail and nuance that informs all of Holmes’ work, from his paintings to his drawings and cartoons.

Holmes’ EagleFest 2006 poster will be on sale at the Narrowsburg Sullivan West school auditorium on January 14, the day of the festival, and from the Delaware Valley Eagle Alliance thereafter. There will also be a silent auction for eagle-themed posters by other area artists on the day of EagleFest, on display at The River Gallery. Those who are interested in contributing a poster may pick up blank boards from The River Reporter at 93 Erie Street.

Other activities scheduled for January’s festival include live raptor presentations, movie showings, ice sculpture, panel showings and eagle viewing from the Narrowsburg deck.