FARMINGTON — Doodling during spare time at work landed Lauren Duvall a commission to create a photo board for Saturday’s Pumpkin Festival.
Lauren, 17, a senior at Mt. Blue High School, works part time at Narrow Gauge Cinemas in Farmington.
Owner John Moore said he noticed little scraps of paper with doodles and drawings left around the theater.
“They were pretty good,” he said.
Instead of reprimanding Lauren, Moore asked her to create a scarecrow scene photo board with holes for people to poke their heads through for amusing photos.
Children — and adults, too — loved poking their faces through the boards for photos, Moore said of past boards at the festival.
There is a little more shading to do on the scarecrows and pumpkins, Lauren said of her project, which she worked on over the past couple of weeks.
“I’m always drawing,” she said. “My first journal was filled with artwork. I started when I was about 4 or 5 years old.”
Lauren said she is mostly self-taught, but she takes a painting class with her grandmother, Pam Starbird of Farmington.
She is the daughter of Chris and Amy Duvall of Farmington.
Her father said they let her work on the scarecrow board after her studies are done.
“It is fun to come downstairs in the morning and see what she has added,” he said of the 6-foot-tall by 8-foot-wide board propped against a wall in their dining room. “We are really proud of her.”
The Duvalls encouraged her artistic streak by taking her to art classes at Kineowatha Park in Wilton when she was younger. She takes art at school now, he said.
Lauren plans to pursue a four-year degree at the New Hampshire School of Art with a major in graphic arts and a minor in painting next year, she said.
For now, she is the only student taking an advanced Commercial Art and Photography class from teacher Charlie Fontaine at Mt. Blue, she said.
She creates graphic artwork on laptop computer covers, cellphones and T-shirts, she said. She is also working on a project for the Weld Historical Society.
Duvall drew the design for the photo board based on a poster for the fourth annual Pumpkin Festival. Moore agreed to pay her for up to 20 hours of work and materials, but so far, she has only used about 10 hours on the project, she said.
The photo board will be set up at the main information booth in front of the Better Living Center on Saturday, Moore said.
More information about the Pumpkin Festival is available at www.farmingtonpumpkinfestival.net.
abryant@sunmediagroup.net
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