Each month for First Friday, Downtown Spokane prints a limited number of collectible posters from a local artist. Your free poster can be picked-up at the concierge at River Park Square or the Visit Spokane Visitor’s Center in Riverfront Park starting First Friday and throughout the month while supplies last. Meet the selected artists below.
Now accepting submissions for 2020/2021 Poster Artists.
September 2020 Poster Artist | Frankie Benka | Steam Plant
Born and raised in Spokane, lifelong artist Frankie Benka has traveled the world studying art and architecture. Residing in Seattle, Phoenix and central California before returning to Spokane for retirement.
As an artist, Benka does not limit herself to one medium. Painting with oil, watercolor, acrylic, and alcohol ink and creating pieces in ceramic and porcelain. In recent years, Benka has focused on designing functional spaces, designing everything from tiny houses to opera houses, bridges and public art to furniture and lighting.
August 2020 Poster Artist | Debbie Hughbanks | Wonderment
Debbie Hughbanks is a professional artist specializing in wildlife, equine & domestic animal paintings, as well as figurative and western themed pieces. Working most often in pastel or acrylic she still finds time to explore other mediums. The connection she feels for the subjects she paints, as well as the passion and joy she experiences in the actual creation of the work, is evident in each unique completed piece of art. Debbie is a Master Emeritus Member of Woman Artists of the West and a Signature Member of several other national organizations.
July 2020 Poster Artist | Conner Jackson | Reflection
I am a 16 year old photographer and have been practicing photography for over 4 years. I recently moved from California to Spokane Washington and hope to expand my knowledge about the art of photography
June 2020 Poster Artist | Bevie LaBrie | Spokane’s Essence
Bevie LaBrie’s layered and textured artwork has been influenced through her years as an art therapist and educator, youth worker, wilderness instructor, and her exploration of the world through climbing rocks, travel and mountainous beauty. She is inspired by life and nature in all its’ forms–calm, chaotic, dry and abundant. Her passion is to inspire and open up wells of creativity, courage and life in others through her art and process of creating.
May 2020 Poster Artist | Steph Sammons | Brass Ring Recollections
Steph Sammons has worked with Special Needs children for the last several years. Her primary focus was visually impaired students, providing Braille instruction and creating three-dimensional, tactile learning materials. Before working in public education, Steph facilitated art activities for patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and with pediatric oncology patients and their families.
April 2020 Poster Artist | Megan Perkins | Steam Plant
Megan Perkins is an artist, teacher, and native of the Pacific Northwest. She works primarily in watercolor with a love of color and expressive line. She is most well known for her Artist’s Eye on Spokane series, which was started during a year long project of painting at a new location in Spokane every week for 52 weeks. Her paintings of the Spokane area are featured in a monthly column in the Spokane Coeur D’Alene Living magazine.
March 2020 Poster Artist | Amanda Caldwell | Remaining in Readiness for Some Purpose
Amanda Caldwell earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from Eastern Washington University in 2018. Today she continues to find different ways of documenting the physiological and psychological process of memory making and its connection to individual interpretation of environments operating within the constraints of various types of public architecture, transportation, and communication systems.
January 2020 Poster Artist | Megan Perkins | The Spokesman-Review Building
Megan Perkins is an artist, teacher, and native of the Pacific Northwest. She works primarily in watercolor with a love of color and expressive line. She is most well known for her Artist’s Eye on Spokane series, which was started during a yearlong project of painting at a new location in Spokane every week for 52 weeks. Her paintings of the Spokane area are featured in a monthly column in the Spokane Coeur D’Alene Living magazine.
December 2019 Poster Artist | Debbie Hughbanks | Snowy Owl
Debbie Hughbanks is a professional artist specializing in wildlife, equine & domestic animal paintings, as well as figurative and western themed pieces. Working most often in pastel or acrylic she still finds time to explore other mediums. The connection she feels for the subjects she paints, as well as the passion and joy she experiences in the actual creation of the work, is evident in each unique completed piece of art. Debbie is a Master Emeritus Member of Woman Artists of the West and a Signature Member of several other national organizations.
November 2019 Poster Artist | Danielle Flinn | Spokane Night Lights
Danielle Flinn is a well-versed graphic artist passionate about the community and encouraging creativity throughout the inland northwest. She has explored design and creating ever since she was old enough to grasp a colored pencil. During her final year in the Eastern Washington University Design program, Danielle hopes to grow the EWU Design community by increasing partnerships with Spokane creative experts and student involvement in community events. Danielle also serves on the 2019-20 AAF Spokane board.
September 2019 Poster Artist | Collette Vergon | Little Artist With Big Creativity
Vergon has had a deep-seeded passion for art since childhood. Today Vergon considers herself an artist in bloom, constantly exploring new mediums, developing new skills, and continually pushing to improve. Vergon works primarily in colored pencil and pen but dabbles with clay work as well. Vergon’s work include everything from cartooning, stippling, sketching, caricature-style to portrait work. Her current passion is drawing from vintage photographs and exploring graffiti works.
August 2019 Poster Artist | Elena Collins | Bear
Local artist of Cuban heritage. Known for unique eccentric perspective and aspect. Collins started photography in 2001 and became a large canvas artist in 2015 after some life altering experiences. Collins approaches life with even more depth now. Like her page on Facebook at EZArt Gallery.
July 2019 Poster Artist | Mallory Battista | Creative Creatures
Mallory Battista is a visual artist and writer currently preoccupied with comics and ironwork. Her work with the local blacksmithing club Columbia Fire & Iron was recently awarded a SAGA grant, which expanded their ability to teach blacksmithing to the Spokane community. You can see her blacksmith every Friday at the Emerson Garfield Farmers Market and find her comics in the quarterly Spokane Sequential and on her website www.mallorybattista.com.
June 2019 Poster Artist | Janie Edwards | Feisty Robin
Edwards has been a Studio Art Tour participant from 2013-2017 and formerly showcased at her own Galley at the Spokane Marketplace. Edwards is inspired by her garden and paints what she find’s in her own backyard. Edwards began painting in 2000 when she was gifted a set of watercolors for Christmas and won Honorable Mention at the Spokane Watercolor Society’s Show in 2017. A collectible poster of her work can be found at the Visitors Center inside Riverfront Park.
May 2019 Poster Artist | Holly Schmehl | Lilac City
Holly Schmehl is a watercolor and modern calligraphy artist of two years. She started creating to relieve stress and anxiety as an unexpected stay at home mom. It turned out to be one of the best life experiences, allowing her to find art again. She focuses on creating custom keepsakes that will last a lifetime.
April 2019 Poster Artist | Stacie Boyer | It’s Good to be Home
Boyer is Co-Owner of The Art Lab Spokane – a creative venture that hosts mobile art classes along with designing and painting murals. Stacie is a multi-dimensional artist who has studied at The Rocky Mt. College of Art & Design and The Art Institute of Seattle. She works primarily in Illustration and graphic design. In addition to her design and painting work, Stacie has illustrated three children’s stories. Find out more about Boyer and her work at www.TheArtLabSpokane.com.
March 2019 Poster Artist | Alice Harmon | First Friday Shoppers
Considered a surrealistic painter, Harmon has taken instruction for 30 plus years but considers herself mostly self-taught. Harmon’s work can be seen in the New Moon Gallery.
January 2019 Poster Artist | Ryker Murdock | Maiden Voyage
Murdock was born and raised in Southeast Idaho on a Ranch outside of Blackfoot. Growing up he was surrounded by vast landscapes of desert, mountain and farmland, which probably contributed to the type of art he prefers to create. He has been the artsy type his whole life, only recently moving to Acrylics as a primary medium.
December 2018 Poster Artist | Vicki West | Passing Time
West is a lifelong painter, painting and teaching professionally for over 20 years. She is a signature member of Spokane Watercolor Society and recent member American Women Artists. West has been presented with countless awards, solo and group shows, public art and print recognition in Artists’ Marketing Resources Magazine. West’s work will be in exhibit at William Grant Gallery in June of 2019, and she has painted one of the fiberglass hearts benefiting the Ronald McDonald House, currently on display in downtown.
November 2018 Poster Artist | Diane Covington | Watching Squatch
Born in 1961- Covington an emerging acrylic painter who tells stories in bold, strong colors of bold, strong indigenous women. She paints in memory of her paternal grandmother who was an artist, a teacher of Spokane tribal culture and language, and Diane’s first and lasting influence. This artist’s regalia-clothed figures preserve ancient traditions, explore contemporary issues, and imagine a future where indigenous ways of knowing and being are respected, accepted, and manifested.