Five Hills Art Guild prepares for third annual festival

By LYNETTE SOWELL
Cove Leader-Press 

The Five Hills Art Guild is gearing up for the third annual Five Hills Art Festival, set for Friday and Saturday, March 16 and 17, in Copperas Cove City Park.
Festival committee chair and guild treasurer, Linda Lapierre, along with the guild’s director for its current mural project, Catherine Blashack, spoke to the Morning Exchange Club on Wednesday to give updates on both. 
This year, artist from Central Texas and beyond are displaying and selling their work at the festival, for which the theme is “Go Green!”. There will be paintings, prints, handcrafted wood items, photography, art glass, jewelry, needlework and more. 
Friday night is the newest addition to the festival, with several Cove elementary schools, its high school step teams, along with step teams from other local high schools having a step competition that evening, with performances by Pandemonium Steel Drum band. 
Saturday includes live entertainment by bands Rare Dog, The Storm’s I, Katy Starr and D/Madness of Austin, will be dance presentations by the Central Texas Bellydancing Association, GymKix, and the Double C’s Square Dance Club.
Along with continuing to line up vendors, the guild seeks local sponsors to come on board to support the festival. Lapierre said “Friend of the Festival” sponsorships for $100 are still available. 
Catherine Blashack has been overseeing the guild’s latest mural project at the Ledger Furniture building, at the corner of Avenue D and Main Street. The project is nearing completion, with some details still to be added in. 
Some of those details include adding familiar faces to the figures walking on the corner of Main Street, with the design made up of photos from Copperas Cove’s history. Figures added include Stephen Branch, store owner; Edna Teinert and her husband, Lee and Linda Ledger, Lea and Lovett Ledger, and more. 
The project kicked off in late October, with the weather over the fall and winter causing some delays. Blashack selected sepia tones for the mural, which lends the air of “days gone by” to the painting. 
The guild is hoping to have an unveiling of the mural before the festival.