Christmas Stars

Star. Monoprint card by Phillip Hoyle
I titled all fifty cards the same.

I had a preacher friend who dreaded the religious holidays, especially Christmas and Easter, “What can you say that hasn’t already been said over and over again?” he whined with true exasperation. “I’m so tired of it.” I wondered if he wanted to be stellar, but even that would be traditional.

I am not so dramatic as my friend but still have to face a similar dilemma annually for my Christmas card. I don’t hope to be original, but I do hope to create something that is different for me, some experimental technique or design even when using centuries-old symbols that more recently have been overused by Madison Avenue to sell holiday presents.

This year I’m using a roller, a stencil, a stamp, and some pencils. I cut the stencil and the stamp myself and employed a printing process my artist friend Sue taught me during the past year. (I suppose this is the way I keep myself entertained in the studio.) I chose odd combinations of colors to create strange looking stars, perhaps ones that could gain the attention of modern-day magi and lead them through a cultural desert find a most holy and unexpected gift.

The ones shown here I am keeping in my collection so don’t be disappointed when you don’t receive one of them. But to summarize my card project; I made fifty monoprints with stamp and Prismacolor enhancements. Well, something like that.

Happy holidays!

Denver, 2015

These cards I'm keeping for my own collection. The process was great fun.