Santaland and explorations of Father Christmas...
Or perhaps just my favorite. And one of our favorite aspects of the year, is that lovely old guy, the wizard of the toys, the right jolly old elf, Santa Claus. So here is Ellawyn with our favorite invoker of Father Christmas. The Santa at the Annapolis Mall in Anne Arundel County.
Some of you may remember that I have a curious affection for Father Christmas, which I wrote about last year, so perhaps if you haven't read it do so now, here: Concerning Father Christmas...
If you read my post from last year, you know by now that I am working towards a goal of portraying Father Christmas as a character. That is, I want to dress up like Santa Claus. This is far more complicated than it might seem. Of course anyone can wear a cheap suit and bad beard and have lots of fun. After all, Santa is in the spirit of the portrayal and not in the cost of the garb. However, as I want to ultimately portray a rather complex and Old World Father Christmas, and with Tim Allen setting the bar so high in his Santa Claus movies, well, I have a few hurdles to jump through before we can get there. One is current family commitments forbid me from even booking any events so until those change, I gather information and inspiration and make my plans.
So I thought I might share some of my inspiration with you all. I spend a lot of time on a special forum this time of year. Clausnet.com is an excellent community of the "Fellas in Red", as well as various Mrs. Clauses and Elves that has welcomed me in. Lots of sharing of Christmas fun, news stories about Christmas and Santa traditions worldwide, etc.
I learned on there how St. Nickolaus is portrayed in the Balkans this year, as the traditional bishop with crozier and miter, followed a thread of a couple in the south west US who have purchased their first sleigh, and with it naturally mounted on a wheel base, taken in the local parade for a "One Horse Open Sleigh Ride".
I learned the ins and outs of the complicated world of Yak Hair appliances. Did you know that the market for Yak hair, like so much of commerce, is centralized in China and there has been terrible problems with it of late? The quality of Yak Hair Beards and other Hair goods has bottomed out and some of the "Fellas" have looked into purchasing bulk to offer it as a resell to the community.
There are Reindeer breeders on there as well. It seems that sooner or later, anyone wearing the suit realizes that they could bring a reindeer to an event with them to add to the atmosphere, adding to the income of the appearance as well as you can charge more for add-ons, and starts looking for breeders. Seems many of the reindeer farms start off as Mr. C and find that raising livestock is an appealing idea as well. Recently there was an article posted from a newspaper that said that kids wanted to leave out carrots for Santa's Reindeer. We had it from a good authority that what reindeer really prefer are apple cobbler granola bars. So notify the kids in your lives.
One of my favorite things about the community is one of my favorite things of all. Art.
I collect Santa figures. I love the old world ones. With his long robes, staff, woodland garb, he often looks like the magical and wizardly figure he is. So here is our display this year.
I enjoy the art of 2D Santa illustrators as well. I have been introduced to several good ones through the Santa community. One is the very talented Donna Race. Here is her main website: http://www.donnarace.com/
And here is a bit of her art. I very much like the idea of wearing frog latches with Bells for closure.
Here is Dean Morrisey. He is wonderful, with a very nice old world touch to his Father Christmas illustrations. I mean, these striped pants are great! And take a good look at that belt buckle!
Here is another one with a wonderful star covered robe. As an artist, I took a special note of the light source in this painting. It is coming from between Father Christmas and the girl, and invisible point of joy casting a glow upon their faces.
So this next artist is an acquaintance of mine. Ruth Sanderson, of Goldenwood Studios is one of the greats of the mythic arts. I had the distinct pleasure of meeting her at the recent event in Philly, Faerie Con. Here skill and expertise in illustration is remarkable and she has created a huge range of work featuring Faeries, Greenmen and Greenwomen, Fairytales, and so much more. Of course of principle interest to here is her Christmas, Santas, and Nativity illustrations. There is lots more on Ruth's site and she is also has a number of licenses which has caused me to examine some of my Christmas themed popcorn tins that we store our decorations in. It is my pleasure and introduce you to this remarkable artist. Take a look around her site if you get a chance and here are a couple of Santa to tease you.
My current favorite image is the work of Myles Pinkney. He seems to be a fantasy artist, and his site contains a lovely collection of wizards, including a remarkable Gandalf at Bag End, and dragons. There are however, two FABULOUS Santa images. The first one here, is the one that I love the most, and I am using a variation of it for my desktop. Suffice it to say, that if I can create a character image that invokes a small bit of the magic of this scene, then I will be very happy.
It's called "Christmas Presence" and really is a wonderfully detail presentation of Santa. The boots, the coat, the vest, the bag. Not to mention the mind numbingly elaborate background. I hope to get a print of this and hang it up for inspiration, (from the Greek, "To Breathe Life Into") all year long.
Here is the other one. The same Santa flying through the night. Which, I know I am destined to perform and present Santa to the kids, as while driving home the other night, I couldn't help but imagine myself driving a sleigh. It helps that I have driven a horse trap. Just consider it for a moment what actually driving that sleigh through the nighttime would be like. The feel as you whip up and down. The sleigh pulling like a pendulum behind the team. Having worked with livestock and draft animals before, I was really struck by the idea that this is an important fact of the Santa image that slides by a bit. Eight reindeer, (I guess nine if it's a foggy night) is a lot of animals, and it would be hot and dirty work. Being around alot of large animals is a bit mind altering as well. Their over whelming presences, not to mention odor, puts you in a hyper aware state, attuned to things. That large of team is a bit edgy and something could go wrong, even majorly so, at a moment's notice. Not to mention that if your livestock have antlers!
So I hope you all are having a lovely Christmas Yuletide Solstice Holiday. We are snug as bugs as the weather seems to have Mount Savage in a nasty grip. The bitter cold of the East seems to have been broken and we are looking forward to at least slightly warmer holidays. We are enjoying our days with paper snowflakes and visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads.
Thanks for coming along for a little visit to Santa Land.
Kubiando!
Some of you may remember that I have a curious affection for Father Christmas, which I wrote about last year, so perhaps if you haven't read it do so now, here: Concerning Father Christmas...
If you read my post from last year, you know by now that I am working towards a goal of portraying Father Christmas as a character. That is, I want to dress up like Santa Claus. This is far more complicated than it might seem. Of course anyone can wear a cheap suit and bad beard and have lots of fun. After all, Santa is in the spirit of the portrayal and not in the cost of the garb. However, as I want to ultimately portray a rather complex and Old World Father Christmas, and with Tim Allen setting the bar so high in his Santa Claus movies, well, I have a few hurdles to jump through before we can get there. One is current family commitments forbid me from even booking any events so until those change, I gather information and inspiration and make my plans.
So I thought I might share some of my inspiration with you all. I spend a lot of time on a special forum this time of year. Clausnet.com is an excellent community of the "Fellas in Red", as well as various Mrs. Clauses and Elves that has welcomed me in. Lots of sharing of Christmas fun, news stories about Christmas and Santa traditions worldwide, etc.
I learned on there how St. Nickolaus is portrayed in the Balkans this year, as the traditional bishop with crozier and miter, followed a thread of a couple in the south west US who have purchased their first sleigh, and with it naturally mounted on a wheel base, taken in the local parade for a "One Horse Open Sleigh Ride".
I learned the ins and outs of the complicated world of Yak Hair appliances. Did you know that the market for Yak hair, like so much of commerce, is centralized in China and there has been terrible problems with it of late? The quality of Yak Hair Beards and other Hair goods has bottomed out and some of the "Fellas" have looked into purchasing bulk to offer it as a resell to the community.
There are Reindeer breeders on there as well. It seems that sooner or later, anyone wearing the suit realizes that they could bring a reindeer to an event with them to add to the atmosphere, adding to the income of the appearance as well as you can charge more for add-ons, and starts looking for breeders. Seems many of the reindeer farms start off as Mr. C and find that raising livestock is an appealing idea as well. Recently there was an article posted from a newspaper that said that kids wanted to leave out carrots for Santa's Reindeer. We had it from a good authority that what reindeer really prefer are apple cobbler granola bars. So notify the kids in your lives.
One of my favorite things about the community is one of my favorite things of all. Art.
I collect Santa figures. I love the old world ones. With his long robes, staff, woodland garb, he often looks like the magical and wizardly figure he is. So here is our display this year.
I enjoy the art of 2D Santa illustrators as well. I have been introduced to several good ones through the Santa community. One is the very talented Donna Race. Here is her main website: http://www.donnarace.com/
And here is a bit of her art. I very much like the idea of wearing frog latches with Bells for closure.
Here is Dean Morrisey. He is wonderful, with a very nice old world touch to his Father Christmas illustrations. I mean, these striped pants are great! And take a good look at that belt buckle!
Here is another one with a wonderful star covered robe. As an artist, I took a special note of the light source in this painting. It is coming from between Father Christmas and the girl, and invisible point of joy casting a glow upon their faces.
So this next artist is an acquaintance of mine. Ruth Sanderson, of Goldenwood Studios is one of the greats of the mythic arts. I had the distinct pleasure of meeting her at the recent event in Philly, Faerie Con. Here skill and expertise in illustration is remarkable and she has created a huge range of work featuring Faeries, Greenmen and Greenwomen, Fairytales, and so much more. Of course of principle interest to here is her Christmas, Santas, and Nativity illustrations. There is lots more on Ruth's site and she is also has a number of licenses which has caused me to examine some of my Christmas themed popcorn tins that we store our decorations in. It is my pleasure and introduce you to this remarkable artist. Take a look around her site if you get a chance and here are a couple of Santa to tease you.
My current favorite image is the work of Myles Pinkney. He seems to be a fantasy artist, and his site contains a lovely collection of wizards, including a remarkable Gandalf at Bag End, and dragons. There are however, two FABULOUS Santa images. The first one here, is the one that I love the most, and I am using a variation of it for my desktop. Suffice it to say, that if I can create a character image that invokes a small bit of the magic of this scene, then I will be very happy.
It's called "Christmas Presence" and really is a wonderfully detail presentation of Santa. The boots, the coat, the vest, the bag. Not to mention the mind numbingly elaborate background. I hope to get a print of this and hang it up for inspiration, (from the Greek, "To Breathe Life Into") all year long.
Here is the other one. The same Santa flying through the night. Which, I know I am destined to perform and present Santa to the kids, as while driving home the other night, I couldn't help but imagine myself driving a sleigh. It helps that I have driven a horse trap. Just consider it for a moment what actually driving that sleigh through the nighttime would be like. The feel as you whip up and down. The sleigh pulling like a pendulum behind the team. Having worked with livestock and draft animals before, I was really struck by the idea that this is an important fact of the Santa image that slides by a bit. Eight reindeer, (I guess nine if it's a foggy night) is a lot of animals, and it would be hot and dirty work. Being around alot of large animals is a bit mind altering as well. Their over whelming presences, not to mention odor, puts you in a hyper aware state, attuned to things. That large of team is a bit edgy and something could go wrong, even majorly so, at a moment's notice. Not to mention that if your livestock have antlers!
So I hope you all are having a lovely Christmas Yuletide Solstice Holiday. We are snug as bugs as the weather seems to have Mount Savage in a nasty grip. The bitter cold of the East seems to have been broken and we are looking forward to at least slightly warmer holidays. We are enjoying our days with paper snowflakes and visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads.
Thanks for coming along for a little visit to Santa Land.
Kubiando!