Local artist shows ‘sweet side’

By Gina Farthing

Published: July 23, 2008

What does one get when they add some cakes and candies to watercolor paints? The result of that sticky, sweet and gooey combination is about to be officially revealed Saturday in Stuarts Draft.
“I’ve tried for past year or so to get her to paint [a scene for Sweet Dreams],” said Stuarts Draft Postmaster Kevin Blackburn. “She really came up with a terrific piece of artwork. I’ve already got 10 to 15 presold.”
Artist Lisa Geiman, who was born and raised in the Shenandoah Valley, took the image in her mind of the fifth annual Stuarts Draft festival and transferred it to paper with watercolors.
It will be on sale at the festival along with limited edition prints.
“I love [Sweet Dreams],” Geiman said. “And I wanted to put my own personality into the color and design.”
She also incorporated elements from some of her other paintings — rural America, the Blue Ridge Mountains, fences and mailboxes — items, that among collectors have become synonymous with Geiman’s work.
“I wanted to play up the sweet side of the event,” she said.
“People have been telling me they know the exact house and where it is, that Lisa painted,” Blackburn said. “But she just painted from a mental image. She even included the stamp and official postmark.”
“It’s true,” Geiman said. “But isn’t that what you’d like people to do — we want them to identify with our work.”
This is the first commemorative artwork done for the Sweet Dreams festival Geiman said, who donates between 400-500 prints per year to various causes.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Geiman said she wanted to do a piece that commemorated the fire and rescue personnel.
Waynesboro Fire Department had received a new engine and wanted her to do something, incorporating it into the work.
The result was “Fire and Rescue.”
The piece, and some others, has drawn some formal praise.
In her Fishersville studio she has a framed letter from the Department of the Army and the Waynesboro Fire Department has presented her with plaques each year since 2005 for her support.
Along with those kudos, she has letters from the office of Ronald Reagan and the Rev. Billy Graham and his wife, Ruth, thanking her for gifts given to them.
On Saturday, she’ll give back again.
A portion of each sale of the limited edition prints of the Sweet Dreams painting will return to the festival to support its continuation.
“Nonprofits do a lot of good for a lot of people,” Geiman said.
“How can you say, ‘No,’ to that?”