While many families like to decorate early in the Christmas season, at our house we have a different tradition. There is a flurry of birthdays through December with Phoebe's being the last. She turned twelve yesterday and it was celebrated with appropriate fanfare. Only then it is time for Christmas. Phoebe (with a little help from grandma) art directed the tree this year. It was decided the colours would be silver and gold with predominantly white (or mostly white) ornaments. As always, only hand made (by family members) ornaments grace our tree, some dating back almost forty years. There are so many wonderful ornaments now they couldn't possibly all fit on our tree. Each ornament brings back so many great memories of events, celebrations and people. Christmas is all of these things and much, much more. It's Christmas at last.
BZZZZZZZ
Today I was out front of our yard pushing some old snow away from the parking area when a van I recognized pulled into our driveway. I had never seen the van nor met the driver previously but I had designed the artwork on the sides of the vehicle. The owner excitedly greeted me and enthusiastically gushed about the artwork. It turned out I had done the work for his previous partner who had moved on to other projects. The fellow in my driveway had lost track of the paper work and had been looking for me for some time. The designs for the van had been done with a full dimensional bug in mind. It looks like we may yet build the bugs and that would be fun!
Off the wall
Our shop will be officially closed during the time between Christmas and New Years, as it often is. But when I need a break from extended family visiting or get a little bored from resting I will steal a little out there from time to time to work on a fun project. This is the time of year I like to do some experimenting, trying of new things.
Today, with that in mind I began designing my entry into the Sign Invitational Challenge piece for this coming spring. I don't like to leave things for the last moment. We are bound to be exceptionally busy then.
The rules for this year's contest are similar to those of last year. The finished piece can measure no larger than 2 feet by two feet by six feet tall. The theme is 'sign magic'. As I thought about my entry an idea came to me from my mural painting days. People would often comment that the image I was painting seemed to come right out of the wall. What if a sign painter was in the middle of painting a billboard and that really happened? That imaginative premise would be the theme to my entry. I decided to use another favourite theme as the subject matter - steam trains. The sign painter from Normal Rockwell's cover art will serve as the figure. There will be more surprises of course as I begin the build, but we'll get to that in due time... I set to sketching...
