This story is completely true. Well, mostly true. OK, to be honest, Lisa has been very busy. The rest just came to me while I doodled around, looking for an idea. I sketched a Christmas tree that reminded me of an elf’s hat, and from there I was off.
I needed 2 pages to tell this story. Each page is a separate image. Below the cat-meets-elf detail are the first page in the middle and the second page on the bottom.
I discovered that its fun to draw elves’ hats, shoes, and fezzes.
Lisa suggested that I try a pop-up card this year, and I thought that would be fun. A few frustrating hours later, I finally figured out the technique – how to make different planes stand up and then fold into a flat closed card. A 3D scene from a flat card – a little bit of magic!
“Ah lichtige Hanukkah”, in Yiddish, means “A bright Hanukkah (to you)”.
The latkes that are puzzling Our Cat are the traditional Hanukkah potato pancakes fried in oil. I think he’d prefer tuna.
Happy Hanukkah!
You can get a little more Hanukkah history, including the meaning of the candles and of the oil the latkes are cooked in, in my 2009 Hanukkah card.
As usual, Schindler creates a world with three roof/ceiling planes (Figure 1). Here the planes are 6’-8”, 8’-0” and 8’-8” high. The first two heights are typical, appearing in most of Schindler’s houses, particularly in his later Schindler Frame Houses. The third 8’-8” plane is unusually low, reflecting the modest budget and small size of the house.
The steps in the ceiling never occur over a wall, but are offset about 2’-8”. Almost every room has a step in the ceiling. Even the bathroom has a ceiling step, although the room is so small that it would be difficult to see (Fig 2). The steps make the spaces within each room more dynamic and imply spaces that flow through the walls, somewhat like the Erlik house but without the high glass. The ceilings step up to the rear, but also on a diagonal towards the living room southwest corner, making the living room the tallest (8’-8”) space (Fig 3).
A little seasonal silliness
I needed 2 pages to tell this story. Each page is a separate image. Below the cat-meets-elf detail are the first page in the middle and the second page on the bottom.
