A Hostfest Ness-essity
Julie Ness said she's learned a few things in the 11 years that she has been painting for the buttons and believes this year's design is her best work so far.
Minot Daily News
- September 29, 2011
Jill Schramm
See the picture with the story: A Høstfest Ness-essity
Most artists at Norsk Høstfest get an exhibit booth. Julie Ness is the principal designer behind an entire village, and visitors to Hostfest will find her rosemaling everywhere.
Ness, a graphic designer with Basin Electric Cooperative in Bismarck, works with the Touchstone Energy Heritage Center in Copenhagen Hall and designs Touchstone Energy Cooperative's annual souvenir buttons, worn on the shirts and sweaters of thousands of people milling the halls of Minot's Scandinavian festival. The rosemaled buttons find their way outside the Høstfest, too, based on reports of the souvenirs being worn as far away as Disney World in Florida. For many Høstfest visitors, the numbered Touchstone Energy button is more than a free entry into a prize drawing. It is a collector's item.
A native of Tolley, Ness learned rosemaling in high school. She said she has a number of books featuring rosemaled designs, and each year will page through different patterns to find the right design and colors.
Ness said she's learned a few things in the 11 years that she has been painting for the buttons and believes this year's design is her best work so far.
"This is my favorite," she said, adding that she hopes Høstfest visitors like it as well.
"What I hope is people see it as a little gift," she said. "I see everybody wearing them and it really makes me feel good. ... It's cool. It's a nice feeling."
This is the second year that she has created the design electronically, using a special artist's pad connected to a computer. Although electronic rosemaling might not be the traditional way, Ness said it has its advantages in the ability to magnify for detailed work and correct mistakes.
Touchstone Energy prints 16,000 of the buttons, giving away 4,000 every day. This year the buttons are entry into a daily drawing for a basket of energy-conserving items. Button holders also are automatically entered into separate drawings for two 40-inch televisions.
Visitors can pick up the buttons, as long as the day's supply lasts, at the Touchstone Energy Heritage Center in Copenhagen Hall.
Ness was part of the crew that began work at the state fairgrounds Monday to prepare Copenhagen Hall for Høstfest.
"We take a barn and turn it into a village," Ness said. She particularly gets involved in arranging and decorating Touchstone's heritage village, where artisans demonstrate age-old traditions and crafts.
Her handiwork also can be seen in banners and posters around Høstfest where Touchstone Energy, Basin Electric and other electric co-ops have a sponsorship presence. Touchstone Energy is a nationwide alliance of consumer-owned utilities.
Numerous employees and retirees of area cooperatives are involved in the Touchstone Energy booth and other sponsored activities. For instance, Basin Electric provides the camera operators and video screens for the shows in the Great Hall of the Vikings and a booth for radio broadcasting.
Headquarters
1717 East Interstate Avenue
Bismarck, ND 58503-0564 USA
Phone: 701.223.0441
Basin Electric Power Cooperative will provide cost-effective wholesale energy along with products and services that support and unite rural America.
