Tiffany Jorgensen was not planning on entering a painting in the annual Williams Lake Stampede poster design contest for 2023.
But after a number of people reached out to her and asked her to paint something to honour Wilf Smith and Willie Crosina’s contributions to the Williams Lake Stampede, she decided she would take a stab at it.
Jorgensen has won the contest three times now, in 2019, 2022 and now again, in 2023.
Her decision was partly due to the opportunity to create something which pays tribute to Smith and Crosina, who both passed away in 2022.
“They were such huge pillars of our rodeo community,” she said.
It was also an opportunity to create something which represented the generations of growing up in rodeo for so many Cariboo families.
“I can’t think of a better way to represent the rodeo,” said Jorgensen, of the idea of creating something generational. She said in her submission to the directors:
“Rodeo is about family. About community. About the support, the encouragement, the many facets of making it happen. It’s about taking your family and friends out to celebrate the athletes and the hard work. It’s about the generations of love and knowledge of the activities and events. It’s about our community coming together. It’s about tradition. It’s about the people who show up. It’s about the show, the behind the scenes, blood sweat, tears and smiles. About victory and grace, and getting back on. Rodeo is memories that live on forever and making new ones. It is an ageless passion.”
The painting includes the two men, Wilf Smith and Willie Crosina, along with a number of young people, all real people involved in rodeo in our area.
Smith is holding Sterlyng Fuller, the boy facing to the front is Rino Poffenroth, and the two boys facing away are Hunter Cooper and Hunter Rife, all three of whom are friends and Little Britches competitors.
Gracelynn Poffenroth is the barrel racer in the arena.
All together, they represent the past, present, and future of Williams Lake Rodeo.
Caterina Poffenroth, a Stampede association director, said she sent Jorgensen a number of photos to help the artist and talked back and forth with her.
“We were so excited,” said Poffenroth, noting the poster image is “just so Williams Lake.”
“The entire poster is what we felt Williams Lake and the Williams Lake Stampede is about,” said Poffenroth.
The painting was done with the promise if Jorgensen won, she would give it to the family of Wilf Smith, and for her work, Jorgensen received tickets to the Stampede auction dinner and dance, $500 and a framed copy of the poster.
“It’s been a really amazing few days,” said Jorgensen, who had just handed over the original painting to the Smith family.
Poffenroth said the dinner, dance and auction on Feb. 25 was a huge success and it was wonderful to see people celebrate, braving the cold and snow over the weekend.
“It’s nice to see people out together again, I don’t think I saw one person without a smile on their face,” she said.
Read more: Williams Lake Stampede poster memorializes late Tsilhqot’in bull rider
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