I just came across this sketch folded up in a stock of old sketchbooks, designs, ideas, etc. that I must have been playing around with a long time back... The subject is my mom when she was a young lady.  ~  I'm thinking that at the time I just folded it up because I didn't think much of the artwork or really give it that much effort ( or maybe I just never found the time to finish it ), but I like it now and am reminded of what a kindhearted beauty she was.

     Marian Gabriel { "Mimi" } Fox Breslin ( 1933 - 2003 )

​Link to July 2018 blog and artwork: "High Summer ( 2018 )" - Chrissy Breslin Schroeder

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Here are some pictures of the joys found in 2020 and my painted Christmas gifts that I surprised each of my sons with since both of them got a new puppy this past year. 

In February 2020, my Joey, who loves to spend as many winter weeks as possible in the mountains skiing, got a Bernedoodle he named "Gigi".  - -  And then around Thanksgiving, my Sam, who is loving life living in Chelsea, Manhattan, got his French Bulldog named "Sprout".
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*Sprout* the Big City Dog:

{ Sprout's painting background is based on one of Sam's spontaneous texts to me of the wonderful settings found in his neighborhood of Chelsea, Manhattan.  In particular in this case, it was a texted photo of a beautiful garden with tall sunflowers growing right along the side of the road that I remembered and reviewed for inspiration in the painting of Sprout. }
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    A picture of Joey & Sam after opening their Christmas gift surprise. ( The artwork in the background of this photo is my brother’s acquired painting by my Great-Grandpa, William P. McDonald, of my great aunt. )

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When my boys were younger, there was an era when I painted dogs all the time. I used to call my home studio space the dog pound because when you walked into the room all you would see were so many dogs… all kinds of dogs each with a different expression staring down from the stacked rows of shelves encircling the room.
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Here are a few images of some of my old dog artwork that I was able to find on my current computer. ( There are many more pictures of my dog paintings, but they are on an old computer file. )

A “Redbone Coonhound”.   (…haha, that is what my photo file’s label says it is.) :

I remember creating all kinds of various background designs, patterns, and abstractions in the paintings...
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​This one appears to take some inspiration from Frank Lloyd Wright...

​This one I created to donate the artwork to a fundraiser for my sons' high school. ( The school building constructed in 1960 is made with tan colored brinks that are distinctive of that time period. - - I believe that was my inspiration for the layering of the tan rectangular abstractions behind the dog. )

   These hooks… During my “dog period”, as my son once jokingly called it, I crafted stock loads of these wall hooks with many different pictures of my dog art and sold them at art shows, etc. Here are a couple pictures of the wall hooks I was able to find in my photo files.  Similar to my St. X Golden Retriever, one of them is a drawing of a Cincinnati Reds theme dog that I sold with my baseball art when painting baseball players later replaced my subject of dogs. 

​This old snapshot of a collection of painted dog tiles is looking like what we would call a ‘Zoom’ meeting in 2020…

A while back, I painted this guard dog canvas sitting on our fireplace mantel.

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An old painted canvas with a dog subject just created out of my imagination.

​     ....And finally and most memorable to me is a little oil painting of our beloved family dog “Moxie” when he was a puppy. Our family got “Moxie May” as a rescue dog the May Sam turned 9 and Joey turned 6 and he stayed loyally & lovingly by our sides until after both the boys were well off to college. ~ Here is a photo of a wall in our new home with the Moxie puppy painting looking at us through a stream of captured sunlight.

    This time of year, amongst other things, inspired me to do a study of a statue that is now in front of my old high school. I'm not sure when the statue was installed there, sometime between the 1980's & 2020 I guess since it was not there when I attended the school.

"Our Lady of Victory" statue { pencil on paper drawing ~ work in progress }

I was attracted to the statue subject after thinking about creating some artwork to donate to my high school's annual fundraiser auction as promised to my fellow Ursuline Academy of Cincinnati 1985 classmate who is chairing this year's UA Ultimate Auction.

with - Tides of Eternity Art by Chrissy Breslin Schroeder

   On this Autumnal Equinox of 2020, here's an 11" x 14" canvas I just painted.  I call the painting "Fall Fair" and created it by incorporating different elements from various different photos found in an old magazine collection along with some of my own improvisions. 
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     In my years, there have only been two times in the history of baseball that *Opening Day* did not happen for the Reds in their hometown of Cincinnati  - - the place where I was born and the place where the momentous spring occasion is celebrated as an official holiday with a home game regularly scheduled for the Reds since Cincinnati is the official birthplace of major league baseball.  The first time was in 1966 ( the year I was born ) and due to April showers, the celebrated beginning of the season was delayed.  The second time was in 1990 and the reason that year was because of a lockout and labor dispute within the MLB.  A week into the schedule however, baseball came back to Cincinnati as the Reds went on to celebrate that new 1990 season and did not stop until the team brought home a Wire-to-Wire World Series Championship.
 
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    Needless to say, this year the delay to the start of the baseball season is most unfortunate. Nevertheless, on this day that was scheduled to be Opening Day 2020 in Cincinnati and all around the United States, I’m celebrating all that can go right and ideal in the game of baseball regardless of what external or internal conditions may alter its course. It is in that spirit that once again, I celebrate this collection of resilient team players that thirty years ago, despite the delay in the season’s beginning, went on to conquer the World Series in Sweeping *Wire-to-Wire* fashion.

  
​   Below are some pictures of my signature *Mosaic Bobblehead Painting* of those 1990 World Series Champions of baseball.  - -  More about this artwork can be found in my blog: "My Wire-to-Wire Summer with Twelve Stars and A Piece of American History"  which also includes a video of the old high-tech Riverfront/Cinergy Field scoreboard in action. 
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     Here are some pictures of some artwork that I did the week after Christmas after wrapping up the holiday and finding some *New Year* time to paint.

    Below is a picture of a very quick and loose sketch I did in my sketchbook.  For the sketch I imagined a figure and formed a posture thinking that if I painted it, I would fill the figure in with color the way that I did in my painting that I later created.

  “To you and all your family, your neighbors and your friends, may all your days be happy with the joy that never ends.  May peace and love and surround you at Christmastime and all the whole year through.”

   Those are some of the lyrics to a song called, “My Christmas Card to You” by the Partridge Family; and during this time of year it was played, sung, and danced to pretty much non-stop in my house when I was little.
 
  Though my sentiments have continually matched the lyrics to The Partridge Family’s “My Christmas Card to You”, my actual Christmas Cards have not come through the form of top pop-chart hits.  They have however included original artwork which has been presented in the more traditional form of the visual arts on cardstock paper ensealed in an envelope and patted with a stamp.  It has been since the time I got married, got a new house & home and a little later had little babies to add to my family, that I have enjoyed designing, painting and crafting my own Christmas cards. Here is a collection of a few of my favorites including this year’s painted holiday greeting...

“HOLIDAY CHEERS AND HAPPY 2020!”
 
       My holiday card this year is an illustration of me, my husband and our two twenty-something, young adult sons in our new home in Kentucky whose big windows overlook layers of rolling hills and a wonderfully picturesque close view of our hometown of Cincinnati across the river. We are loving things in our new house and treasure all our times together celebrating the peace and joy life brings. I had so much fun painting this card.  Not only was it such a joy to reflect of the wonderful features and animated love captured in it, but it also brought me joy in that it reminded me of artwork when I was little.

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    Being born on Christmas Day in 1966, the “Mid-Century Modern” aesthetic and vibe surrounded me as a little kid and, aside from music, nothing impressed me more than the hand drawn cartoon illustration style that was so popular in commercial advertising and other graphics during those middle years of the 1900’s.  Another term to describe the type of retro style I am imagining could be understood as the “Atomic Age” of design ( which was influenced by the “Space Age” that began the middle of last century).  To me, it is uniquely distinctive of the years around my birthday and brings to mind the things that were coloring the world back then and inspiring me as a little person. It is that mid-century era style that I was reimaging for this year’s painted card design.  ( …In this painted current day Christmas cartoon scene of my family, I am imagining maybe a classic 1960’s vinyl record spinning on a turntable in the background that includes the relatively all-new hit “It’s a Marshmallow World” in the latest *stereo-sound*. :)


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     While spinning a variety of tunes from many decades and painting this year’s Christmas Card, I came to reflect how it is/was not just in reimagining the colorful style of the “Atomic/Space Age” that brought me joy, but it was also in remembering me as a little person interpreting my world in my young years through my artwork. As a little kid, I regularly spent time creating and repeatedly drawing my own signature cartoon-like characters which my mom & dad and my three big brothers & three big sisters in our large household of nine had coined in admiration as “Chrissy’s Little People”. With features a little different than the mid-century commercial stereotype cartoon people I mimicked to represent me, my husband and our boys in this 2019 Christmas Card, my “Little People” were distinctive of my art with a style all their own and were drawn doing all kinds of activities and experiencing all kind of events and encounters.

    I remember my favorite “Little People” series of drawings ( colored pencil or crayon I think ) were included in a little book I wrote called “My Trip to the Moon” where I get separated from my parents at the airport and accidently board a rocket that lands on the moon where I take a walk to the dark side and meet a green alien with two pointy heads - - an alien that, like the encircled drawn head I drew of me, also had one big circle around both of his heads. ( Large global fishbowl helmet type circles …Any spacewalkers secure source for oxygen I presume. ) Haha, it was pretty wonderful… Creatively inclined early childhood meets early 1970’s moon exploration inspiration.  Looking back, it’s fun to reflect how those mid last century years in America found way to excite my artistry ever since my first spin on this planet which began many Christmas Days ago. ( Later in this blog, I will mention “My Trip Around the Sun” which is some artwork I created decades later shortly after my sons were born. )


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"​PEACE & JOY IN EDEN PARK"
 
This is a painting I did ten Christmases ago for a local holiday greeting card design competition.  It’s the only contest I’ve ever found interest in entering for my artwork. Shortly after I began using social media in 2009, I discovered an ad about my town's City Art Holiday Card Contest and decided to submit a painting since my whole life I have loved creating my own Christmas cards.

The painting I submitted is of Eden Park and includes childhood memories of ice-skating on its frozen “Mirror Lake” in the center of the park.  Eden Park in Mount Adams is known for being a particularly beautiful spot in my hometown of Cincinnati; and as a young kid, ice-skating was my absolute favorite thing to do.  So, for me, the subject and composition came to mind easily.

As it turned out, my young dreams of investing in my ice-skating skills did not go that far for me, but my artistic endeavor was realized when I won the art competition and my design was produced, sold, and distributed throughout town and beyond for Christmas 2009.  I called that ice-skating in the park holiday greeting card painting “Peace & Joy in Eden Park”.
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Below is a picture of me with my art that was taken as a promotional photo for the holiday cards and was published in a variety of local newspapers and magazines.

     As I was going through my photo files to find pictures of my 2009 holiday painting and other Christmas cards, I came across this picture of my process work in that “Peace & Joy in Eden Park” art and was reminded that not only did I start the painting out with many more carved skating strokes that I loved to swirl around on the ice; but I also included the painted figures of my 2007 Christmas Card in the background.

​     Those figures in the background, one in a red hoodie and one in a gold hoodie, walking through Eden Park are a repainting of the same figures I painted walking on a snowy mountaintop a couple years earlier for my 2007 Christmas card.

“JOEY & SAM: 2005 TRIP TO YELLOWSTONE”
 
In 2005, my family of four took an extended vacation exploring as much of the beautiful wilderness in the American West as we possibly could including taking many amazing journeys through our country’s treasured National Parks.   The incredible majesty of the landscapes we crossed are simply impossible to capture in words or pictures. However, for my Christmas card that year, I did attempt to compose a painting to celebrate the awesome wonder and beauty we experienced as a family by piecing together a snapshot recalling those wonderful memories. 
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  This Christmas Card painting from 2005 includes a picture of my sons, Sam and Joey, in Yellowstone National Park.  Though it does not show in digital images, each individual card was hand decorated with additional layers of texture hand-crafted on each print.  For example, in the waterfall and the river stream, I added an additional layer of dimension with touches of fine, reflective crystal sparkle. I also crafted additional dimension and texture to each of the painted boarder flowers and pinecones as well as hand tied each card with sparkly red ribbon.

“AWAY IN A MANGER”

Looking back on this Christmas card, I am remembering how those sweet little babies once so peaceful when asleep in a crib quickly turn into toddlers that keep a parent running from day to night. ~ Such was the age for my little ones around the years that I somehow found time to make this Christmas card.

For my holiday greeting that year, I don’t believe that I even got out paints but just quickly drew the simple artwork in colored pencil ( …which appears to have faded a bit. )  Still, this remains one of my favorite old Christmas cards recognizing the expressions of my sons’ thoughtful, loving and reflective hearts that continue to bring light to my world today.

"SAM E. CLAUS"
 
As any family probably knows, the addition of a new baby makes any thought of all the joy and all the excitement Santa Claus may bring pale in comparison to the joy, excitement and enchantment a baby brings.
 
That was certainly the case with our baby boys… Here is a painting I created as a Christmas card of our first born, Sam, for his first Christmas ( ...and for me and my husband's first Christmas as parents. )

​Inside the card I wrote Merry Christmas from “Sam E. Claus” ( Sam’s middle initial is “E” ) and on the front of the card circling the moon I wrote, “His eyes how the sparkle, his dimples how merry, his cheeks like roses, his nose a little cherry." )  😊


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“TRICKS AND TREATS”
 
​For our next year’s Christmas card, before Sammy’s brother Joey was born, I painted a picture of our first little trick-or-treater. 

“MY NEW TRIP AROUND THE SUN”
 
Earlier in this blog I wrote that I would mention “My New Trip Around the Sun”. - - “My New Trip Around the Sun” is a blog I wrote.  It includes a description of the Christmas card tree ornament pictured above that I made to send to family & friends for Christmas 2000.
 
Various times I have written about or shown various versions of that 2000 Christmas card of mine. ~ Here are some links to some of those reflections including a link to my blog about “My New Trip Around the Sun”.

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* In “My New Trip Around the Sun” blog, I noted how my December 25th birthday aligns with Christmas Day.

Here is a Link:
https://www.chrissybreslinschroeder.com/blog/my-new-trip-around-the-sun-wishing-all-peace-hope-joy-and-love

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* In the next link I noted the timing of this 2000 Christmas card creation of mine and how it became relative to the passing of both my parents in the early 2000’s. ~ I also described how I crafted a special crystal bead trimmed version for my mom the December she passed away.

Here is a Link:
https://www.chrissybreslinschroeder.com/blog/may-the-road-rise-to-meet-you

A picture of my mom & me when I was little.  { My mom, Mimi Fox Breslin, passed away on December 21st, the Winter's Solstice, sixteen years ago. }

A link to little Blog about My Mom:
My Mom 

* This next link notes that this Christmas card is based on and inspired by my own original “Tides of Eternity” clock creation which I made shortly after my sons were born, and around the time of both of my parents' passing, and in anticipation of a whole new and different century on this earth.

Here is a Link:
https://www.chrissybreslinschroeder.com/about.html

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* This other link shows a picture of a variation of my Christmas Card 2000 artwork that I created the following fall after 9/11/2001.

Here is a Link:
https://www.facebook.com/148099118621581/photos/a.316796038418554.65280.148099118621581/316802725084552/?type=3&theater

   A seasonal subject found me filling my sketchbook with doodles about this week's Day of the Dead and All Hallows' Eve holiday celebrations...

#diadelosmuertos #happydayofthedead #happyhalloween