Twenty years ago, Maxine MacLeod was part of a small downtown art cooperative when she was approached about creating the poster for the Tulip Time Festival's 60th anniversary celebration. The anniversary celebration in 1989 "was a big deal," said MacLeod, who has been a watercolor artist since the early 1980s. "I was so flattered."

The painting by Maxine MacLeod that will be used for the 2009 Tulip Time poster. Now, MacLeod's artwork will serve as the festival poster for Tulip Time's 80th anniversary celebration, May 2-9. This is the third time she has created a Tulip Time Festival poster, having also done so in 1990.

MacLeod, 74, said her painting for this year's poster was inspired by a photo of the America's Holland Tulip, developed over the past five years in the Netherlands province of North Holland.
"I thought (when I saw the photo), 'That's a painting waiting to happen,'" said MacLeod.

Thousands of bulbs for the new tulips have been planted in the city for this year's festival.