Happy / Merry

A holiday mishmash

1994. Christmas day in San Francisco with my lapsed Christian of some denomination, not entirely pleasant, boyfriend of the time. No one else at the midday screening of Interview with a Vampire, except for another couple way down front, one of whom turns out to be a Jewish guy I went to high school with in New York but haven’t seen in 20 years.

Used to be half the homes in my mom’s neighborhood put up lights, with several yards displaying giant Santas or snowmen. This year, only two houses have any lights, and none of them blink. My mom’s Christmas cactus, usually packed with pink blooms, has also yielded a meager display. Make of that what you will.

This harlequin Christmas tree (on the left) was my best-selling greeting card, created for the now long-defunct Pacific Paperworks. An image I later licensed to a company, whose name I can’t recall, that sold paper napkins and plates, earning me tens of dollars in royalties. Still glad to have many boxes of the cards, though, even if right now they’re buried in storage. I’m particularly fond of the 2-D / 3-D effect. And who doesn’t love a harlequin anything?

In going through the stuff in my mom’s basement, I’m still hoping to find the Christmas angel I made in Florence in 1966. A fourth grade school project, constructed from pre-cut wood, you could paint however you wanted. I made mine pale blue with gold stars shaped like the ones above. Both an homage and a reference to the skies in certain egg tempera paintings of the Renaissance. (I was a very thoughtful 10-year-old.)

The Christmas day view from my bedroom window

Here’s hoping your last days of the year are merry and bright.
Cheers,
-Sue

---

---