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Poster artist Jill Carter based her artwork’s bunny on the real-life ones that nibble on dandelions in her yard in Olympia, Washington. The real-life ones are not wearing a large peach helmet.
This year’s poster for the Oregon Country Fair features a bunny in a peach-shaped helmet and space suit, hula-hooping while floating down gently with what might at first glance be assumed to be a cluster of balloons, but are actually goldfish.
The bunny’s front-and-center presence is thanks to both artist Jill Carter and the many, many rabbits that are currently occupying her yard in Olympia, Washington.
“They’re just sitting there nibbling on their dandelions, and I was like, of course, there’s got to be a bunny on the poster,” she said.
But is the rabbit, seen by thousands of people coming to the woods near Veneta this week, based on any particular model bunny?
“No,“ she said. “There’s so many I can’t tell them apart anymore.”
Poster artist for the Country Fair is a particular honor for creatives in the scene, and a chance to work on a piece that becomes an annual symbol of the whole event.
This year, Carter’s rabbit is visible in the hands of thousands of fairgoers, as Country Fair posters also double as the cover art for the annual Peach Pit guide handed out at the gate.
For Carter, it’s a dream that’s decades in the making.
“In this world we need more magic and creativity, and it’s so exciting to see so many people here embrace that,” she said. “I’m glad to be a part of it.”
Carter, 59, grew up on a farm in Dixonville, Oregon, attending college at Olympia’s Evergreen State College and finding a career in theater scenic design.
She’s been coming to the woods near Veneta since she was 16, not missing a single year and working for Blazing Salads, a food booth with (of course) salads and avocado dreamboats. But she had always wanted to be the official OCF poster artist, a position she had applied for over the years to no avail.
She decided to tailor her artwork to what she said is the heart of why so many people head to the woods each year.
“I really decided that what the fair is really about is whimsy, and so I really wanted to make sure to develop my art style to be all about whimsy,” she said. “We’re very playful, and we’re very full of creativity here, and I wanted to combine all those things together.”
Fair posters are much-loved memorabilia, too. Carter’s booth is near the fair’s main exit, with posters for her to sign as visitors purchase prints to take home.
That means Carter’s yard bunnies will be remembered for a long time to come — and for one fan, maybe indefinitely.
“There’s somebody who’s decided that they’re going to get a tattoo of it,” she said. “Which I was like, ‘okay, wow, that’s crazy.’”
