July, 2009

Well,  I thought it would be fun to share a snapshot I found in my parent’s photo album on a recent trip to upstate NY—my first Christmas!  There I am, decked out in full Santa gear.  My brother is holding me in his lap while looking dapper in his Perry Como sweater and my sister is to his side in quite a festive outfit (pre “Lord of the Dance”).  You can see now how from birth I was instilled with a love for the holidays!  Many of the things under the tree are now part of my “vintage” collection.  Love that pink reindeer!  My mom used to get old shoe boxes  and “cotton glittered snow” and create magical scenes.

Tinsel was strewn from the branches in my youth until we got a dog and he ate it and…you know!

With the Christmas convention coming up, I have been reflecting on the wonderful Christmas memories of my past and how much they are a part of me and my art.

Until the next sketch!

A week from today,  I leave for an antique Christmas collector’s convention called the Golden Glow. This year it is being held in Sacramento California.

I am so excited!  This will be my first time attending and I just LOVE antique Christmas ornaments—I have a modest collection of  some that I inherited from my family, mostly vintage Japanese.  In the last few years  though, I began collecting antique Mercury glass balls and garland.  The colors on these old pieces are  just stunning. I love to decorate my tree by mixing my line of painted ornaments with various sizes, solids and stripes of mercury glass balls. (I also learned  to wash my hands after touching them, the silver  in them gives me rashes!) I will post pictures once I start decorating my trees for this upcoming Christmas.

I also have a slight addiction for feather trees- I just love their look, history,  and how they show off ornaments. I  have read that when German immigrants migrated to America they brought along their feather trees. Christmas was something that was so beloved that they could not fathom celebrating the holiday without a tree.  The Feather Tree Co. makes wonderful new feather trees out of goose feathers in the traditional manner.

I hope to pick up an antique one when I am at the convention.  I will also be signing copies of my book A Very New York  Christmas as well as some of my ornaments – some of which are one offs and not yet available in retail outlets.  One that I  especially love is my new 3D American Roadtrip.

Until the next sketch!

I have been eager to start blogging so I can share some of the wonderful memories from my events, Christmas, childhood, and daily life.  I also plan to talk about some of the various things I am currently working on and engaged in.

So, today is the beginning. Jeffrey Keefer has helped  me set everything all up in WordPress—many of you know him as the helper at my signings.

It took awhile to come up with a name for my blog.  At first, I tried to play off of my last name—like “Storrings Sketches,” but thought it wasn’t quite working for various reasons.  Consequently, I sat down and just brainstormed a list.  Potential candidates included—Happy Sketchbook, Color Me Happy, Sketch and the City, Night Before Sketching, and Once Upon a Sketchbook. Eventually I settled on Sketch Upon A Time. For me, it captures the fact that I am an artist reminiscing about magical moments in my life.

I hope you will continue to follow me here—either by signing up to receive email notifications or by subscribing to my blog’s RSS feed. I welcome any comments or thoughts you may have.

Until the next sketch!