ukulele yule

Posted by on Nov 22, 2013 in Illustration, Portland Public Library | 2 comments

Tis the season once again. Somehow the holidays always rush me. I’m still scrounging around for Halloween candy, and it’s time to think about holiday cards. I love making greeting cards, always have. I found this old one (me in a beard!) to show to my students, along with a fantastic collection received from other illustrators. This is back in the day, before color printers were a household item. Hand-colored xerox did the trick then.

hohocard_blog

I decided I should include two things in this year’s holiday inspiration: a beard and a ukulele. We’ve had ukulele music in the house for the past year, after our daughter dropped out of guitar lessons and picked up a ukulele. I sketched her plucking her new best friend.

ukeD_blog

She joined the Peaks Island Ukulele Ensemble, a larger-than-life band of new uke players who staged a uke mob in front of the Portland Public Library, launching a new uke lending program. You can hear their spirited Let it Be here.

I got one for Marty, too, made from an MJB coffee can. He sketched both ukes for the Sketchbook Project 2013.

Mukes_blogHonestly, they are such lovely objects.  No wonder we were SO eager to see the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain when they came to town.

I made this sketch for my Facebook page…sheer excitement!

Uke-GB_blog

We heard a fascinating lecture first about the history of the ukulele from local musician and ukulele maker, Joel Eckhaus.

Joel_uke

The Brits put on a bloody good show, dry wit and original and unexpected arrangements (and epic whistling) pretty much brought down the house. With all that uke-ness playing in my head, here’s what I did for this year’s holiday greeting: ukulele yule.

ukecard_blogThis shows I’m hoping for love and joy to come to you, and maybe a pile of snow! If you want one in the mail, send me your address now. Here’s to letting sweet music finds it’s way into your holiday spirit.

2 Comments

  1. TERRIFIC!!!

  2. Fa la la la la!

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