Christmas on Coney Island

Last year was my first Christmas in New York. I wanted to have a card that varied from my usual style and that was fun and silly.  What better place for all that than Coney Island? My first visit to Coney was totally memorable.  As we watched the sideshow performers do crazy and terrible things to their bodies, I was called from the audience to pull the sword from the sword-swallower's throat.  It was terrifying and awesome and completely real.

I always liked these performers ever since the litany of Hissa the Snake Boy from the Frederick County Fair repeated itself about a million times as we stood in line for some ride or another, I think either the Zipper or the Ferris Wheel.  "Hissa! The Snake Boy! Alive, alive, crawling all over his body!"  One time I told my class about Hissa as we were looking at some circus imagery and I completely lost my composure by laughing.  It was the kind of I-couldn't-stop-this-laugh-even-if-you-put-a-gun-to-my-head laugh that leaves one speechless for a minute or two.  I vowed to never mention Hissa again in class, lest I risk all respectability as a professor.

My mom used to tell me about how my Grandpa, who passed away six years ago, used to go to Coney and ride the Cyclone.  I knew then how my card should look.

Have yourself a silly little Christmas! My plans for this year are even more bizarre.

"A Coney Island Christmas" Ink Drawing by Jessica Boehman, Digital Color by Meghan Boehman

On the Third Day of Christmas

My true love gave to me three french hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree.

Unfortunately due to a moving snafu and the start of teaching, I won't be able to complete the fourth day in time for Christmas (and my fall art sale in Chelsea) this year, especially if I hope to complete an envelope liner. But I am very happy with the three plump hens.  They came to fruition on September 11, ten years after such a sad day.  Living in NYC this year, it was more potent than I expected. I was glad to have something for my hands to do.  Do you recognize the same border from the partridge? I think it looks much different with its new French inhabitants. 

"The Third Day of Christmas" Pencil. Copyright 2011 Jessica Boehman

On the Second Day of Christmas

My true love gave to me...two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree.

Inspired in part by the song and in part by the two doves who always nested in my parents' backyard. Every year they sat there together on top of the old swingset. Sometimes she was large and pregnant.  Other times we watched them build nests.  They always seemed like such a happy pair.

"The Second Day of Christmas" Pencil Copyright 2011 Jessica Boehman

Drawing #2 in my 2011 Christmas series.

Christmas in July--A Partridge in a Pear Tree

I'm working on a new series of Christmas designs in keeping with my current shop theme of menagerie.  I've decided to limit the series to the first four days of the Twelve Days of Christmas--the partridge, the turtle doves, the French hens, and the calling birds. These will be printed as luxe cards on metallic stocks with gold envelopes and liners.  I'm pretty excited about how they will look in the end...Christmas is definitely the time for luxurious things. Here's the first day.  Because he's the root of all of the gifts, I've nestled him within a pear tree and a pear and holly mirrored border.   Enjoy!

"The First Day of Christmas" Pencil Copyright 2011 Jessica Boehman