2026 Featured Artist – Penny DObson

It is our distinct pleasure to announce that Tuscaloosa’s Penny Dobson has been selected as the Poster Artist of the 21st annual Moss Rock Festival (MRF).

With national penny production ending soon, we are sure that Penny is stocking up. Why? Instead of signing her 2D mixed media works on the front, she uses a vintage penny as her signature, often dated from the decade she was born. It is a unique and fitting mark to identify her work, which reuses, repurposes, and reimagines familiar objects and other second hand or vintage finds into artful, unusual canvases and assemblages brought to life by oil paintings and other decorative adornments like seed beads. Penny’s artistic process combines recycling, innovation, and a love of nature, especially flora and fauna. This process and vision for her work is very Moss Rock Festival.

The mixed media piece below is entitled “Organ Donor” and includes reused frames, beads, oil paint, plus parts from an old organ from the Burdett Organ Company, an American reed and pump organ builder founded in Chicago in 1866.

We are excited to show off Penny’s unique work this Fall. We hope you’ll join us November 7-8, 2026 at the Hoover Metropolitan Complex in Hoover, Alabama as we mark this formative, coming of age milestone exploring MRF’s themes of Art + Design, Nature, Smart Living and eco-creativity. And stay tuned for more 21st anniversary special announcements, reveals, and previews in August, September, and October. We’ll be unveiling the featured art followed by the poster design this month. Stay tuned!

Want to read more about Penny Dobson? Plus find out what famous folk artist officiated her wedding. Visit Penny’s MRF Featured Artist page on our website.