2006 marked the beginning of an annual Christmas card tradition for Studio C Shute — Santa Knows. Here’s the story:
I had been looking, and looking for just the right card to receive from your portrait painter. The list of recipients started out small … family, friends and, the real impetus — portrait clients. I’d been selling and living in the DC market for nearly three years at that point, with steady work, so the number was maybe 30 or 40. Of the cards I reviewed, nothing rose above the level of ‘let’s put this in the stack with all the others’ … what I was really going for was ‘this came from our artist friend, wow, let’s save it!’. With time closing in one Saturday morning on the Choptank River, I decided just to do what artists do …. and so I was, as my adorable friend Bob Fouhy always used to say, “off like a honeymoon nightie!”
The card needed a theme, something clearly stretching the boundaries of tradition. I decided to play off the notion that “Santa knows if you’ve been naughty or nice” because I think that’s the coolest aspect of the Santa … presents are interesting, but c’mon, they’re nothing compared with Omniscience. Eureka. Santa Knows was born.
My model, James Peters Snyder was at the time a well-known architect in DC, having in previous years done the wonderful National Indian Museum. It’s a triumph of design, I think, on the National Mall across from the Capitol. Architects and artists usually get along, and he was happy to help. I used oil wash on a small piece of gessoed paper, with a little bit of pencil. Three colors: Williamsburg bohemian green earth, aquamarine blue, and permanent rose.
And weirdly …. Santa Knows was a hit. From that first small mailing, I got tons of notes and calls from people who loved them … they loved the idea of a studio-made card … hand-signed … with an invented origami-style envelope made from regular printer paper. I stayed up all night figuring out how to fold the paper so that it would close with the stamp, no glue or cutting, and still meet USPS requirements … it took 10 times longer than the painting itself.
The project became a tradition for over a decade, and the mailing list swelled. Subsequently, I used a well-known face … Einstein, Steve Jobs, Dalai Lama” … so all year long people would ask who Santa Knows would be that year. Have to tell you … sitting here this morning in my cozy Studio Kitchen … and writing about Santa Knows …. I’m really missing the guy!
