PUTNAM — With the new season of First Fridays events rapidly approaching, members of the First Fridays committee announced the winner of the 2017 First Fridays poster contest. This year’s winner is artist, illustrator and graphic designer, Doug Chapel. Inspired by the 2017 theme, First Fridays Feature Films, Chapel’s work will serve as the cover art for the First Fridays program.

For a fourth year in a row, the contest invited artists from around the region to draw, paint, and digitally create an original piece of artwork, inspired by the 2017 First Fridays theme, First Fridays Feature Films: A Celebration of Cinema. This season’s poster contest challenged artists to present work that captured the essence of six distinct film genres, including: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Action & Adventure, Classic Films, Musicals & Animation, Westerns, and Horror. Just under a dozen artists participated.

First Fridays Chairperson, Sarah Mortensen said: “Once again we were blown away by the quality and creativity of the submissions. This year we had several pieces that engaged with the theme in fun and unique ways and it made for a difficult decision. Mr. Chapel’s work was clever, creative and playfully captured the film genres the season will explore.”

Doug Chapel is a pop-culture-inspired artist/illustrator/graphic designer who lives n Worcester. Crumbling factory buildings, idealized ideas of the future and all manner of modern day commercial culture (toys, comic books, fashion, music, film, etc.) lend a hand in the substance of Chapel’s cartoon/photo hybrid illustration style. 

The kick-off to the seventh season of First Fridays is May 5. For more information go to: www.discoverputnam.com/firstfriday