This is my annual inspirational message, art and Seasonal Greeting:
For at least the past four years I have been creating images, and sometimes cards that I send at the Holidays and as time went on also post as a greeting for the people on my mailing list, subscribe to my RSS feeds, follow me on Twitter and also are my friends and fans on Facebook.
Around July I begin to think of ideas and pray for inspiration.
Green Holly Greetings is a departure from what we tend to think of as seasonal images, such as decorated evergreen trees, candles, cardinals (all used previously by me), and move into the green that the press covers most at this time of year: Money.
The greenbacks, the information and statistics concerning retail and online sales, and the year end sales, plus the Wall Street bonuses fill the news media, which is seasonally decorated by baubles of features that are heartwarming feel-good stories surrounded by advertisements.
For many people, greenbacks are the true green of Christmas and the holiday season.
But this year where I live, there seems to be a lot less sparkle, lights and cheer this year. People are clearly spending less on lights, celebrations and gifts. There are fewer greenbacks in wallets and bank accounts, even for those who have jobs and especially for small business owners.
While a dollar bill may seem like a strange image for a Holiday Card, how many people at this time of year are actually focused on money than on the real meanings of these holiday celebrations? What do Black Friday door-buster sales held in the early or even midnight hours of Thanksgiving say about our real thankfulness and contentment?
Considering the heavy focus on consumerism and money at this time of year, hasn’t money, which in the USA is most commonly represented by the face of the dollar bill, become a kind of symbol of the season?
Green Holly Greetings by Judy Rey Wasserman
Green Holly Greetings is a part of my new In God We Trust series. It is an original print that combines the Essence Portrait of George Washington with another image of the rest of the front of a dollar bill and then adds symbols created with English letters and numbers digitally. All of the strokes of the portrait and except for the English ones on the bill are the original Torah (Bible) font letters of Exodus 20 (the Ten Commandments). Since all the strokes are symbols this art is fully Post Conceptual Art, and to a degree als belongs in the branch of UnGraven Image based on its overall use of Torah font letters that come from a scriptural text.
This is the first of the In God We Trust series original prints to be printed. The printed part is the size of an actual dollar, which also has “white” space as a border. At this point the prints are not being offered.
The In God We Trust series challenges our concepts of worth and money and even about the value of art itself, including art as money and money as art.
People commonly write messages on paper money. What could be more fitting than forgoing the card and gift and writing greetings on a real dollar bill that then serves as both card and gift? If you have ever seen someone turn a card over to see how much the sender paid or try to figure out how much a gift actually cost, you understand that we value how much others spend on us as information both about them and their feelings and intentions for our relationship.
Green as a color has another seasonal message that predates our current winter holidays in its use at solstice winter celebrations. At a time when most vegetation has gone brown, evergreen trees and bushes remain with a visual promise of continuing life.
Out greenbacks, give us the power to bring life or enhance life by supporting causes that we cherish. While we take this opportunity for granted in a simpler society that does not enjoy the use of mass and valued currency, it is far more, if not impossible to support causes that we who use dollars or currencies that can be traded for dollars, can do with ease. I cherish that opportunity and power and I urge you to give to a cause that brings life or a better life to others during this season.
In Green Holly Greetings it is apparent that at least two different people have added messages to the card. One, is “Holly G.”. a person with a Manhattan area code who offers a “good time”, which is a kind of double entendre here as we celebrate the holidays. The other person(s) sends, “Seasons Greetings” and “Happy New Year” wishes. Both messages are backed here by the dollar.
One of the artistic influences on this series is again Andy Warhol, who made works about money, including the dollar. I give a nod to Warhol in this work with a reference to Truman Capote who was one of his good friends with the message in green from “Holly G.” In Capote’s stylish novel (but not the cleaner movie version) of Breakfast at Tiffany’s Holly Golightly was a escort and call girl. Although the book is stronger than the film both versions are stories of redemption through love, which seem fitting to me for the holiday season.
Wishing you and yours all the real and joyous blessings of the Holiday Season and New Year,
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This is my annual inspirational message, art and Seasonal Greeting:
Judy Rey Wasserman is an artist and the founder of Post Conceptual Art theory and also the branch known as UnGraven Image Art at ungravenimage.com.
Check out the Fine Art Limited Edition prints, decorative prints, books, and printables that are currently available to you through Judy Rey’s Art of Seeing The Divine Shop. You don’t have to buy to avail yourself of the art and inspiration available there. However, if you select to collect investment quality archival art, or decorate your home with images created with strokes that are original letters from Bible texts, or buy a gift for someone special, there is a secure shopping cart that accepts most credit cards so your purchase is easy to accomplish. https://artofseeingthedivine.com.
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