Studio Jarvis

I've been in the process of uploading an archive for some old illustration work to my new URL, www.studiojarvis.com, so if you find yourself in a retrospective frame of mind, please take a look here.

Less Is More

Self Portrait after...

We welcome the New Year...

And all it will bring!

A Festivus for the Rest of Us

We're knocking off for the winter festivities, and I'd like to take the opportunity to thank everyone for all their support over the past year, especially for making the Amos Online Store such a success.

Have a great holiday and try not to overdo it. Cheers.

P.S. Further to Russell's post on the topic of Christmas, I would refer anyone who has not seen it to the Seinfeld episode, The Strike, which details Frank Costanza's efforts to establish an alternative holiday in response to the commercialisation of Christmas.

Why Winter Festival?

For those that maybe concerned, there is no politically correct madness in this year's Amos seasonal greeting card. It just so happens that none of us at Amos are Christians. Yet we all celebrate at this time of year. So instead of using the term "Christmas" (a festival specifically created to celebrate the birth of Christ), we went for the more generic term, "Winter Festival".

We could have used the term "Yule". Contrary to popular belief, the celebration and rituals of this Northern European winter festival pre-date Christianity. Yule is a homage to the Winter Solstice lasting from the end of December through the beginning of January, the time of longest nights in the North. The sun stops waning (when days were getting shorter) and begins waxing (the days now get longer). Yule traditions of the ancient tribes include decorating the fir tree, putting up holly and mistletoe, giving gifts, and feasting. Yule was suppressed by the early Christian church and some rituals were co-opted and assimilated to make the forced conversion to Christianity more palatable to the ancient peoples of Northern Europe.

And lets not forget there are countless other cultural celebrations at this time of the year. We don't want to exclude those.

So before anyone tars us with the "PC gone mad" brush, just remember that one man's (or woman's) Christmas is another man's (or woman's) Yule!

So whatever your festival, HAVE A GOOD ONE!

Selected Works in Japan

Reviewed on honeyee.com. I'm sure it must be saying good things...

http://www.honeyee.com/news/2007/art/037/index.html