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It was announced Tuesday that the Austin ArtWorks Festival will mark its 12th anniversary year with Featured Artist Heather Friedli. 

The two-day event will take place in downtown Austin on Aug. 26-27 and will also include Chastity Brown performing at the Schindler Celebration concert. 

Friedli is best known for her contemporary impressionist oil paintings, depicting her family heritage and the land in which she lives. Bold brush strokes and brilliant colors light up scenes of cloudscapes, water, and native flora. Heather’s work is an effort to synthesize her love and experience in the natural world, and wilderness adventure travel.

Friedli was born in Los Angeles in 1982 and received a Bachelor of Fine Art from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2005. She lives in St. Paul and is an award-winning snow sculptor. 

Brown will take the stage of the Paramount at 7 p.m. at the Paramount Theatre on Aug. 26. The concert is the centerpiece of the festival and is sponsored by Mayo Clinic Health System. The Schindler Celebration is held annually to celebrate the life of family physician Dr. Dick Schindler who practiced medicine for over 40 years and passed away in 2014. Tickets will go on sale on July 1. 

Based in Minnesota, but with roots in Tennessee, Brown grew up surrounded by country and soul music. She’s been featured on NPR’s “Favorite Sessions,” CMT, American Songwriter, The London Times, Paste Magazine and others. Brown has toured the U.S. and abroad, appearing on the UK’s Later … with Jools Holland. For much of 2016, she toured alongside folk icon/activist Ani Difranco. 

“What I’ve realized is that the personal is political,” Brown said in a recent interview. “Just by me being a bi-racial, half-black, half-white woman living in America right now is political. Just being a person of color, a queer woman of color, for that matter, is … political.” 

The Austin ArtWorks Festival will feature 56 exhibiting artists from seven states, an Authors’ Stage, live music, free family art activities, art making demonstrations and the Trunk Show at the ArtWorks Center.