Vicki Stevens Will Create 2019 Double Decker Official Artwork

Vicki Stevens will design this year’s Double Decker Arts Festival official artwork.
Photo provided

Visit Oxford has selected the artist who will create the 2019 Double Decker Art Festival poster.

Vicki Stevens was selected as this year’s artist from several artists who submitted their ideas for the poster. Her poster, which will be revealed during a press conference on Feb. 28 at the Visit Oxford office, will become the official artwork for the popular festival, appearing on T-shirts, posters and more.

Only residents of Lafayette County were considered and the bus had to be included in the artwork. There were seven submissions for the 2019 poster artist.

Stevens will receive free Double Decker Arts Festival art vendor booth space on the day of the festival.

Originally from Houston, Texas, Stevens attended the University of Mississippi where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in graphic design and Masters in Business Administration. After graduation, she left Oxford but soon returned in December 1996.

When it comes to Stevens’ artistic style, she says it’s “upbeat, loose and colorful.” Requests for more realistic renderings of iconic Oxford scenes often fill her time, though she tends to paint even inanimate objects with personal flair.

“Capturing a memory or a feeling in a scene or landscape is important to me,” Stevens said of her artistic style.

Her realistic renderings contributed to her applying to be this year’s poster artist. She wanted to have fun working on a piece without a lot of expectations when it came to the color experimentation and design.

When Stevens is not painting, she is working at the Discovery Day School as the assistant director. Stevens said she enjoys the daily interaction with co-workers, parents and children as a break from the solitary work of painting.

While she’s never had her own booth at Double Decker, Stevens has participated in the Oxford Artists’ Guild’s booth. Something she is looking forward to this year is taking part in Double Decker in a new way through her poster art as well as her own art vendor booth.

This year’s 24th annualDouble Decker Arts Festival will be held on April 26-27. The free, two-day festival is inspired by the town’s double-decker buses, first arriving in Oxford in 1994. The festival brings an estimated 60,000 people to Oxford and has won 25 awards including Best Festival by “Mississippi Magazine” and a Top 20 event by the Southeast Tourism Society.

Courtesy of Visit Oxford