HoliDAY MEMORIES

I was moving things around to make way for a construction project in my home.  Most of what needed moving was art and art storage, and the tables I use for matting and framing work.  Of course most of it ended up in the studio,so normal workspace areas were not available for a while.

I took the opportunity to browse through some of the boxes of wrapped work that had been tucked away in a closet for a long time.  I found a number of pieces I had forgotten about.  Two were sweet little watercolors of holiday themes.  Both derive from my memories of holidays growing up in Pittsburgh.

The first, “Anticipation”, is a an imagined view of myself fallen asleep in the stairs, having crept down to peek through the railings to see if Santa had come.  I remember peering through those railings at my mother with my younger brother as a baby, but of course I don’t remember falling asleep on the stairs – that part of the story comes from my parents telling of finding me there. 

The second is a classic Christmas scene of a decorated tree and a cheerful file in the fireplace, with a rag rug on the floor.  This too is an imagined scene made up of remembered furnishings from my childhood home

This one brings back memories of decorating the tree with my many siblings.  We had many glass ornaments that were very fragile, so there were also some sturdy (and not really very attractive) plastic ones for the littler kids to hang on the tree.

Not shown is the train set from the 1920’s that was usually installed around the base of the tree.  One of my brothers now entertains his grandchildren with that old Lionel set, which was still running, last I heard!