Staff writer
In a season of customers lining up around the block at department stores on black Friday and crowds of parents warring over the last “gotta have-it” toy, Jim and Judy Versch have kept Christmas special without having to apply for a loan every holiday season.
Each year for the last 12 to 15 years — Jim said 15 and Judy said 12 — Jim has given Judy a piece of art inspired by her love of Christmas and her collection of Santa Claus figurines.
“We’re in such a commercial world,” Jim said. “She’s a very nonmaterial person. Gifts, as you get older, have to be special, because you need less.”
What is different this year is the Versches allowed past Santa paintings to be displayed as a Christmas collection at Gallery 101 in Marion. Jim has taught art at Marion High School for the past 29 years and was a colleague of Gallery 101 owner Jan Davis for more than 20 years when she was teaching for the Marion school district. They had been in art shows together when she saw some of the Santa pieces Jim painted.
“I knew there was going to be a range,” Davis said.
In the section of Gallery 101 closest to Main Street, there are 11 versions of Santa art Jim has created, dating back to 1999. Every piece contains Santa Claus, a mandolin — because Jim plays the mandolin in bluegrass performances — and a reference to Nebraska football — both Jim and Judy went to the University of Nebraska and continue to be Cornhusker fans.
However, Nebraska, bluegrass, and Santa are where the similarities end. Jim has used a variety of artistic mediums. He has multiple variations of oil and airbrushed paintings. He did not shy away from using multidimensional formats. One version is a relief with a plaster-faced Santa Claus flanked by a bag of toys.
“It’s about not being bored with my stuff,” Versch said.
In one instance, Versch decorated a chest with a collage of Christmas images.
“That chest was my great grandfather’s that he brought from Germany,” Judy Versch said. “It was pretty beat up.”
One year the Versches were evaluating a collection of old items and stumbled upon the chest. Judy asked Jim if they should sell the chest. Jim persuaded her not to and kept the chest in storage, planning to decorate it for Christmas later that year.
“Now it’s a little bit more important because it’s a Santa chest,” Jim said.
Another piece is a scratchboard Santa surrounded by a collage from 2001. In scratchboard, the artist scratches in lines of the image one at a time. Jim used a black background and scratched in hundreds of red, green, yellow, and brown lines to depict Santa riding a horse to deliver a sack of toys slung over his shoulder — with a mandolin snuggled next to a doll and an American flag.
“You put down what you want to put down,” Jim said of the unforgiving nature of scratchboard. “You can put black over it but it looks like white out on paper.”
Davis thought, of all the formats Jim chose, airbrush makes his work most unique. His Santa from 2006 is an airbrushed close-up of Saint Nick playing mandolin. The feathering of the cap and the rosy detail in Santa’s face are just two examples of Jim’s attention to detail.
“You can see where he layered down,” Davis said. “With a lot of practice, it’s doable.”
Jim has employed a traditional airbrush since 1979, although he has versed himself with computerized versions to teach his students.
“It took me a while to get comfortable with it,” Versch said of the traditional airbrush gun. “When you feel comfortable, you can shadow.”
Judy said Jim continues to surprise her every year with something in each work.
“Each one has something special,” she said. “It’s always a great surprise.”
The surprises can come from Jim’s use of different perspectives and images. His most recent Santa displayed at Gallery 101 airbrush painted in 2009 is Santa driving away from a snowy street in a glossy green truck.
The viewer sees Santa’s characteristic red uniform but only the back of his head. On the cab of the truck are a wreath and three bumper stickers: one saying I’d rather be in Winfield with a mandolin, a Sarah Palin sticker, and a Nebraska football bumper sticker. Jim said he got the idea for the painting from an old Christmas card five years ago.
“Sometimes I see things and it clicks right away,” he said. “I see things differently than a lot of people.”
Another example of Jim’s unique perspective is the Santa from 2003. In that painting, the viewer is looking inside a frosty window and sees a Santa figurine. He said he was inspired by a different card that used a photograph of candle in a window.
Because Judy enjoys gardening, Jim also did an airbrush version of a seed package from “Northpole Nursery” in 2008. When he was looking through some of his father’s antique post cards, he came across an old seed package.
“I think we’re bombarded daily with so much visually,” Versch said. “I guess I see more composition; contrast stands out for me.”
Jim will use small touches in his art; for instance, the 1999 painting features an ornament reflecting Jim’s face. Judy said her favorite instance was the year Jim painted his face on the Santa.
“He puts a piece of himself in all of these,” she said. “There’s a lot of thought that goes into each picture.”
For Jim, nothing can top the first year he unveiled a painting for Judy.
“I was in total shock,” Judy said. “I didn’t know he had time to do it. We have five kids; life is always hectic.”
Jim said he partially works on his Santa pieces while his students are fast at work on their final projects for the first semester. He said he mainly works throughout the month of December, but every once in the while he has to put in long hours Dec. 23 to make sure the piece is completed.
“I think it’s important for kids to see me doing art work; it validates what I do,” Jim said. “They see the entire timeline, until almost the end.”
A notable exclusion from the collection at Gallery 101 is a piece from 2010. Jim said it is still in preliminary stages before being ready to unveil this Christmas.
“I look forward to it every year with what he’s going to do,” Judy said. “You can’t beat something that comes from the heart that’s homemade.”