Winter Art and Chocolate Festival
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Press Releases
Press Release #3
Press Release #1 12-14-05
Press Release #2 1-13-07 "2007, the Year of Chocolate"
Press Release #3 1-25-07 "More Art, More Chocolate"
Public Service Announcements
Press Release: �More Chocolate, More Art� Release Date: 1-25-07 Contact: David Willhite Promotions (541) 266-9473 Email: david@davidwillhite.com �More Chocolate, More Art� This year�s Winter Art & Chocolate Festival is fast approaching and will have even more artists and more chocolate than last year. The festival is a family-friendly, non-alcoholic and drug-free event. Admission is free to the public and will take place the weekend before Valentine�s Day, February 10th � 11th from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, in the cafeteria of Brookings-Harbor High. The public may recognize the name of the newest chocolate maker at the Winter Art & Chocolate Festival: �Willhite Chocolates�. Being surrounded by so much chocolate has led Festival promoter, David Willhite to help his wife start her own chocolate business. She has been busy making test-batches of chocolate ganache truffles and David has been her willing, albeit spoiled guinea pig. Willhite Chocolates will feature Guittard gourmet chocolate, made with the finest ingredients right here on the west coast. The Willhites take this raw ingredient and make creamy ganache fillings, coat them in cocoa powder and dip them in luscious dark and milk chocolates. Flavors will include blackberry, cappuccino, royal raspberry, cr�me de menthe, orange, and coconut filled. Each flavor will have a distinct decoration, or colored swizzle to let you know what decadent essence lies inside. Willhite Chocolates will be available boxed in 8-piece or one-pound flavor assortments, as well as individual truffles, convenient for immediate consumption at the festival. Lary McKee will be one of the artists featured at the festival. He specializes in acrylic paintings that feature everything from realistic landscapes to whimsical frogs that get into all sorts of mischief. Also offering her paintings and prints at the festival is Jeanne Thompson, wildlife artist. Her style is also realistic, so much so that people often ask if the elk, deer and other animals she paints are framed photographs. Local clay artist, Michelle Curtis will bring her �Earthen Vessels� again this year. She makes bowls, wall sconces and vases from clay, lovingly embellishing them with details form nature and art. Another clay artist, Barbara Haddad, whose business is called �Catfish Corner� makes ceramic wall tile in a variety of collectible motifs. Jean-Luc Thornton will once again be gracing the festival with his exquisitely crafted wood furniture and art pieces. Jean-Luc has elevated the craft so much so, that it would be more appropriate to call his work �furniture as art�. Another woodworker attending the show this year is George Leverett of Alterwind Music. He crafts harps, hurdy-gurdies, psalteries and hammered dulcimers, which he and his wife Anwyn use to record their own stringed music to CD. Windsand Creations, by DeWayne Scrivner will be at the show with his ice-blocked and sandblasted glass. DeWayne makes thick pieces of glass into works of art that depict coastal themes such as lighthouses and whales. New to the festival this year is a group from Coos Bay called �The Glass Crones�. The �Crones�, as they are often called, is a group of glass artists, who came together to share the techniques of glass making and have been displaying their work together for years. Their work is often seen dancing with captured light, sparkling the eye of the beholder. To wrap this article in chocolate, it should be mentioned that Brookings-Harbor High Honor Society will be raising funds by selling chocolate from a well-known chocolate company based in Ashland, Oregon. Dagoba Chocolates specializes in organic chocolate varietals in bars that introduce the novice as well as the experienced connoisseur to the many different flavors of gourmet chocolate from around the world. They buy the raw ingredient for chocolate, �cacao� (Ka-cow) beans, from Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Peru, and Madagascar. Dagoba Organic Chocolate was the first company to offer organic varietals in the United States, allowing consumers to taste the different flavors in chocolate sourced from individual countries. The 2nd Annual Winter Art & Chocolate Festival will take place February 10th � 11th from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the cafeteria of Brookings-Harbor High. For more information about the festival, the artists or chocolatiers, visit the festival web site at: www.davidwillhite.com.
