Local artist John Peterson is asking for the community's help in designing his newest CD.
He is hosting a contest for the designing of the album art for the CD, which is set to be released in January.
"I want the focus of the art to be on the name of the album," Peterson said.
He said the album title, "The Elements," reflects all the aspects of his life, such as marriage, fatherhood and chemistry and biology--his academic interests.
Vikki Peterson, John's wife, describes his music as "folky Americana-ish."
"He hasn't been very good about selling CDs on his website," Vikki said, "but he does do well selling at his concerts, which are on average every other month or so."
The album art contest began at his Saturday show at The Gnu's Room and is set to conclude Dec. 12 at 5 p.m. It is open to Auburn University faculty, staff, students and the surrounding community.
Tina Tatum, owner of The Gnu's Room, said she was happy to oblige when Peterson came to her with the idea for the contest.
"It was an idea he had to incorporate the community into what he's doing with his music," Tatum said. "We're hoping that once word spreads, we'll have a lot of submissions."
A $100 gift card to The Gnu's Room will be awarded to the winner.
Tatum said before announcing the winner, The Gnu's Room will host a show in January featuring all of the different art that was submitted. John plans on performing during the show.
So far John has released four albums, but this will be the first that he has asked for community participation with his cover artwork.
John is a professor at Troy University and will graduate from Auburn with a Ph.D in biology in May.
Along with singing, Peterson plays guitar, banjo, mandolin, bass, harmonica, dobro, concertina, clarinet and piano.
Artwork for the contest can be submitted at The Gnu's Room or on John's website, changery.tumblr.com, which also has samples of his music.
"People usually put so little into their albums," John said. "We want to do something special."
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