I must apologise for the crudity of some of these works (shades of Dr Emmet Brown to Marty MacFly in “Back to the Future”). Nonetheless I feel that they are worthy of inclusion because they contain the seeds of much of my recent and more mature work. All but the last image are scans of a photo album where these cards are stored.

Ureshii Kurisumasu (Happy Christmas) 1982

In 1982 (above) and 1983 (below) I used cutting and gouging tools to carve thick plastic boards to obtain an effect not unlike wood-block printing.

The Light of Christ (1983)

In 1984 I applied wax to the card to repel the paint leaving the characters for “Hikari ha or “Light…”. I cut snowflakes out of paper and coated them in wax. I laid these on the card before painting over them to leave snowflake silhouettes. These wax snowflakes were repeatedly used to make more cards. Finally in the bottom right card, I briefly applied crumpled tissue paper to leave a snowy landscape.

The Light… (1984)

After a break in 1985 and 1986 I produced this spray paint representation of a present in 1987.

God gave us (1987)

In 1989 and 1990 I turned to the traditional nativity scene for inspiration. Both are simple blocks of colour. In 1989 I mimicked the stained glass look. In 1990 I went for a hanging decoration complete with the star of Bethlehem.

Nativities (1989, 1990)

Notice the spray technique with the absence of stars to indicate a darkened landscape. I discovered the joys of “harigami” (sticking paper shapes on paper) to achieve a simple sharp-edged look.

Nativity (on display) 1990

One of our friends, Mrs. Kobayashi, decorated the card she received and gave it back to us to eventually grace the wall of our new church (below)