ArtPop. They are up! They are up! ArtPop billboards that is. If you have been driving in and around Charlotte since the holiday season, you will have seen Monique Luck’s collage on I-85; Jerry Kirk’s painting on Wilkinson Boulevard near Morris Field Drive; and Flavia Lovatelli’s coiled paper on I-77 near Morehead Street, not to mention the 17 other artworks selected to be part of the first inaugural ArtPop program here in Charlotte.

ArtPop is a partnership between the Arts and Science Council (ASC) and Adams Outdoor Advertising, and the brainchild of Wendy Hickey, a national sales representative for Adams. Hickey started the program 10 years ago in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania as a board member of a local arts council looking to expand community outreach and seeing an opportunity for Adams Outdoor Advertising to provide exposure for artists through its empty billboard space. ArtPop has a very simple mission: to promote local artists through available billboard space. But Hickey hopes it will do so much more.

“It is really about connecting artists to the public. The commuter time in Charlotte offers a tremendous opportunity to expose people to art, maybe even making them want to go to a museum. It is also about that private experience of art as you are driving down the road and can have your own thoughts about the work of art without worrying about others’ interpretations or reactions.”

The 2014 ArtPop artists are also excited about this opportunity to expose art novices to art. Carmella Jarvi, selected for her warm glass work, is thrilled about the fact that “not just art supporters will see this, but everyone driving or riding is a potential viewer.” Photographer, JoAnn Sieburg-Baker believes ArtPop will be “a great boon to my reputation as an artist and a great reminder to my fans that I am still very active in the art scene.”

ArtPop artists are already experiencing positive feedback from this exposure even in the limited time the billboards have been up. Jarvi has noticed an uptick in likes and comments on her artist Facebook page and received calls from fans upon seeing her billboard. Sieburg-Baker noted, “Everyone is excited and amazed at the idea of my having not just a well known and loved piece of my work but my name, as well, on a billboard!”

“Pine Tree Cathedral” by JoAnn Sieburg-Baker used for ArtPop billboard.

For Jarvi, converting her art into a vinyl for a billboard was a great learning experience. Jarvi commented, “It was a wonderful challenge to come up with a billboard format that was eye catching. I experimented a great deal with different color schemes. In the end, I knew I had something that would look stunning at that scale and am so excited to have been chosen.” While Sieburg-Baker felt, “It was right up my alley to take an image of mine and turn it into the shape of a billboard. It required a lot of compositing and pixel painting to make the image fit the unusual format, but this is my expertise and something I love doing!”