Johnston’s design to adorn potato bags
Photo courtesy of The Aroostook Medical Center
ROBB JOHNSTON, 23, of Presque Isle, was the winner of TAMC’s Centennial Potato Bag Design Contest. His work will be featured on commemorative five-pound potato bags that will be used to distribute potatoes provided by Cavendish Produce that are growing in the TAMC Centennial Potato Plot, a two-acre section of potato field on U.S. Route 1 between Presque Isle and Caribou. Pictured with his winning entry are, from left: Johnston, his girlfriend, Jenn Lunden; and his mother, Susan Johnston.
PRESQUE ISLE — Though it took a nudge from his mother, Susan, and his girlfriend, Jenn Lunden, 23-year-old Robb Johnston is glad he entered The Aroostook Medical Center’s Centennial Potato Bag Design Contest.
Johnston won the contest — sponsored by Northeast Packaging Co. (NEPCO) and Cavendish Farms — and his work will be featured on commemorative five-pound potato bags that will be used to distribute potatoes provided by Cavendish Produce that are growing in the TAMC Centennial Potato Plot, a two-acre section of potato field on U.S. Route 1 between Presque Isle and Caribou.
“I heard about the contest on the radio one day and I came home and mentioned it to my girlfriend and my Mom. I wasn’t sure if I should do it, but they pushed me and said, ‘Why don’t you try it. If you win, you win, and if you don’t, whatever,’” said Johnston.
“I had a few ideas rolling around in my head. I knew I wanted to incorporate the history of the Maine potato, so I went with the old, in-ground potato house instead of the new design, as well as old potato barrels. I took inspiration from my late uncle, Allen Shaw, who was a big potato farmer in town. I used to go with him out in the fields and the potato house, so I took a lot of inspiration from that,” he said. “The symbol that I put on the potato house is a variation of the Maine Potato Board logo, which was my way of incorporating the new. There’s a cake on one of the potato barrels signifying TAMC’s 100th birthday, and I put the hospital’s logo and some trees on the design, as well.”
Johnston, a 2007 Presque Isle High School graduate, said the design came together “pretty quickly.”
“I did one sketch and then I transferred it over onto the entry form,” he said. “Including coloring, I probably spent maybe two hours on it. It helped that I had the design in my head.”
The winning artwork, which was chosen by representatives from NEPCO and Cavendish Farms, was unveiled during the TAMC Spuddy Recovery event prior to the start of the Maine Potato Blossom Parade earlier this summer.
“I told myself when I passed it in that I wasn’t going to win,” said Johnston. “I passed it in for the fun of it. When they called me and said I had won, I was totally blindsided. I was shocked, but very happy.”
Johnston, the son of John and Susan Johnston of Presque Isle, said he has always enjoyed art but never knew he had a talent for it until college.
“When I was a freshman, we had to draw something that resembled where we came from as a get-to-know-you activity,” he said. “I drew stuff like cows, potatoes and a bunch of other things and put it on an 8.5-inch by 11-inch piece of paper, and when I passed it in, people were like, ‘Did you know you could draw like this?’ That’s when I realized I had some talent.”
Presently taking online courses in special education, Johnston said winning the design contest serves as a huge motivator.
“I feel that it’s a great accomplishment for myself,” he said, “and it’s something I can relate back to and say, ‘If I can do this, what else can I do?’”
Once the commemorative bags are filled, TAMC will send the potatoes to statewide elected officials and other dignitaries. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) has also agreed to see to it that a bag is delivered to the White House. In addition, TAMC plans to provide the centennial bags of potatoes to attendees at its annual Fall Health Fair, which will have a theme of Harvest, History and Health.
