If our previous Kick-About transported us into a world of ice and some of its fantastical denizens, courtesy of Inuit artist Kenojuak Ashevak, this, our last KA of 2023, is a celebration (of sorts) of things we may associate with the big fella in red and other emblems of Christmas. If you want to browse all previous editions of The Kick-About, you’ll find them here. At the closing of the year, I just want to wish everyone some peace and goodwill during times in which these sentiments are in very short supply and just say a big thank you to our merry band of creatives – for your company, ingenuity, consistency and candour.
Marion Raper
“I decided to take some photos of some of the Christmas cards which my Grandma left to me. In her day it was quite a craze to collect cards and put them in an album. Many are from my Grandad Fred, who sent them as often as he could from the trenches in WW1, mainly to show her that he was still alive. They often just say, ‘Love Fred ‘ However, the message of Peace, Love and Happiness hasn’t changed and so I wish Phil and all the Kick About gang, Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2024.”
Vanessa Clegg
“This is the best I could do but it does rather sum up the tired-looking ‘Christmas cheer’ that started in early November… in a run down seaside town. Brilliant when it’s raining and the wind blowing, but typically when I had my iPad it was calm and dry so ‘stills’ will have to do! Happy Christmas fellow Kick-Abouts!”
Kerfe Roig
“Wanting to move away from the rampant consumerism that is symbolised by Santa in the US, I decided to do something more solstice-oriented. I thought also about the Yule log and its ancient association with marking the return of light. I have a book called ‘Woodcut’ that contains prints made from cross sections of tree trunks. The one I chose to work with was cedar, but only after I finished my embroidery did I do a little research and discover that cedar is considered the World Tree in many cultures, a symbol of new beginnings and a portal between heaven and earth. I used some star fabric and black and white tulle I found in my fabric bin, and loosely circled around the tree rings in the cross-section with my stitches. It didn’t really photograph all that well, so I did a number of different versions on different grounds and in different light. And I wrote a little poem…”
buried deep
in winter’s vast night
stars abide
kblog.blog / methodtwomadness.wordpress.com
James Randall
“Weird Santa is perfect – I’m so anti-Santa consumer poster boy! There were a couple of shapes from my last Kick About that I wanted to explore some more so I popped them onto a Brisbane building photo in fancy colours and I used that as this KAs background. I needed a Santa figure reference pic so got out an ancient copy of a book of Eadweard Muybridge photos and found a few that I redrew and worked into consumer Santa and his colleagues – Petrochemical and Defence Industry figures. Added a few extra building pics and bones and flowing water… So I do believe in an end of year marker to share positive thoughts for the year ahead and to send out thanks for shared creativity over the past year – particularly to Phil, of course, round of applause please. So many amazing creations come from Phil’s prompts – thank you all for sharing your beautiful art.“
Phil Gomm
“Let me be honest and say that getting this short story ship-shape for today has been a challenge and I have been thinking over the last few days ‘What are you doing!?’. The outline came quickly and then building the world and getting it onto the page took much longer than planned. I have been stealing time and energy from all sorts of proper jobs and other responsibilities to get this done, but that’s how it goes when it’s going. I suspect you’re still going to find a typo in here or two, and there’s likely another edit or two by which to smooth of any remaining bumps. That said, I’m happy with it enough to let it go for now. As you know, I do like my Christmas stories on the darker side, and this is no exception., so it may not be for all you. Siôn Corn is the Welsh name for ‘Father Christmas’ – in case you were wondering.”
You can find a PDF here
Graeme Daly
“All I want to do is paint right now while exploring adding characters to my digital art, so here’s few festive illustrations.”
@graemedalyart / vimeo.com/graemedaly / linkedin.com/in/graeme-daly / twitter.com/Graeme_Daly / gentlegiant.blog
For those of you perhaps wondering what to do with all that discarded wrapping paper…
Red's Kingdom 
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