Christmas Card #1
Christmas Card #1
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Artwork Description Christmas Card #1 John J. Laprade, c. approx. 2014-2015 Abstract and intimate, the work by John J. LaPrade was once a gift in the form of a Christmas card to a close friend. This mixed-media art operates less as a literal seasonal image and more as an intimate, personal offering—consistent with the idea of a handmade gift rather than a formal compositional theme. The piece feels like a visual gesture, a token of connection, where material play and emotional tone take precedence. The composition is horizontally expansive, with forms that appear to drift rather than anchor. A large, soft-edged blue shape near the center-left reads almost like a floating silhouette, but it resists full definition. This ambiguity is important: Laprade allows suggestion without closure, encouraging the viewer to experience the image atmospherically rather than descriptively. The sense of suspension—forms hovering within a mottled field—creates a dreamlike spatial condition, as if memory and imagination are blending. Color is the primary emotional driver. Cool blues and blue-greens dominate the central field, establishing a calm, introspective base. Against this, warm ochres, rusty oranges, and golden yellows flicker throughout, especially at the left and right edges. These warmer passages feel like bursts of light or energy breaking through a quieter ground. In the context of a “Christmas card” as a gift, this interplay reads symbolically: warmth entering stillness, radiance within contemplation. Rather than illustrating holiday imagery, Laprade evokes the feeling of offering—warmth extended into cool space. Texture and material layering are crucial. The surface appears built up through washes, scraping, and collage-like interventions. Areas look stained or absorbed into the ground, while others sit more opaquely on top. This stratification gives the work a sense of time—marks laid down, altered, partially obscured. Such material history reinforces the idea of the piece as something made personally and experimentally, not as a polished, market-facing object. It carries the intimacy of process, like a letter written, crossed out, and rewritten. At the top left, clustered circular motifs resembling spots or patterned fragments, which is a reoccurring motif for Laprade. These shapes contrast with the more gestural and diffuse passages elsewhere. Their repetition suggests rhythm, a quiet visual music that offsets the broader sweeps of paint. This balance between spontaneity and pattern keeps the piece from dissolving entirely into abstraction; there are moments of structure within the fluidity. Overall, Christmas Card #1 reads as a work about presence and offering rather than depiction. Laprade uses abstraction, layered surfaces, and a dialogue between cool and warm color to create an image that feels given rather than shown. The piece embodies his preoccupation with little details, attempting to fill the small canvas with miniature surprises. -Jonathan Flike Inscription Reads "Merry Christmas to you and all your turkeys! I love you. John. Call me. I always enjoy talking with you. John Laprade" |
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Provenance* 2014-2015: John J. Laprade 2014/15-2018: Irma A Lespasio (Steuer) 2018-2026: Janet of Ivy League Pickers 2026-Present: Visard Gallery *Provenance and attribution details are based on our best research and are offered in good faith but are not guaranteed. Please contact us through the contact form with any questions prior to purchase. |
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