one image, once a year

November is near, and day by day, it’s getting colder and colder. But I still wasn’t prepared to open my back door to this morning’s snowfall. I think of the obvious (getting out scarves and gloves and coats), but I also think about something that I only think about in the cold month of November: my once-a-year holiday card.

For 20 years, I’ve sent out a few hundred cards to friends, family, and collectors, with an image I’ve created for the holiday season or for the new year. While I can usually count on a few weeks of total frustration, feeling that I don’t have any ideas that interest me, somehow it always gets resolved. In truth, it’s one of my favorite creative challenges of the year. I take the holiday card seriously because I’m creating and printing one image only, not a series.

I think I might have an idea for this year, and this one, like many, became clear when I was hiking with my friend Patrisha McLean (Hiking, yoga, swimming…great creative idea generators.) I’ll post this year’s card in a couple of months, but in the meantime, I thought that today, on this snow day, I’d share a small selection of my cards from past years, a reflection of my work: the use of children’s drawings, negative imagery, and hand-painted photographs.

{ 2002 }

{ 2003 }

{ 2004 }

{ 2006 }

{ 2007 }

{ 2009 }