Poster Party Welcomes Fantasy Fest 2025 Artist Connie Zemcik

Connie Zemcik, the 2025 Fantasy Fest T-shirt and poster design contest winner greeted Festival revelers and signed posters at the Florida Keys Council of the Arts Official Poster Signing Party on Tuesday, Oct. 21, in the Lobby Tropicado of the La Concha Hotel, 430 Duval St., Key West.

Zemcik, a New Smyrna Beach-based artist and muralist, creates art on buildings, windows, canvas, and now, Fantasy Fest collectibles. She learned about the contest just two days before the submission deadline through an Instagram post. “I integrate all kinds of diverse components together for a living, so I’m used to uniting imagery and dreaming up characters,” she said. “It’s not at all unusual for a client to come to me and describe five or six unique elements they want brought together in an artwork.”
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Her 2025 design, reflecting this year’s Fantasy Fest theme, “Bedtime Stories & Magical Monsters,” bursts with colorful fantasy and Key West flair. The artwork features a radiant mermaid astride a flying “Mother” goose adorned with beads, a rainbow-maned unicorn, a mischievous dragon, and a playful sea monster – all swirling around the iconic Southernmost Point buoy marker. Other whimsical elements include a fairy in flight, a flying fish, a genie emerging from a bottle, and a vivid dreamscape of stars – capturing the imagination and magic that define Fantasy Fest. Fantasy Fest 2025 runs through Oct. 26 and is presented in part by the Monroe County Tourist Development Council and We’ve Got the Keys. For a full calendar of events visit http://www.fantasyfest.com.