Artist:
Mayling Mack Holm
(American, born in the Phillipines, 1940 - 2023)
Christmas Dinner for the Children
Medium: Ball-point pen on paper
Date: 1976
Dimensions:
8 x 7 3/4 in. (20.3 x 19.7 in)
Accession number: 2023.5.2
Copyright: © artist, artist's estate, or other rights holders
Curatorial RemarksHolm was a mostly self-taught children’s book illustrated who worked in the unusual medium of ballpoint pen. Each minutely detailed drawing took two to three weeks to complete. Holm did not begin making art until she was in her mid-30s, when her children were young. She wrote and illustrated her own children’s book, A Forest Christmas, published in 1978 by Harper & Row, which was met with great success. It was her first and only published book, taking her two years to complete. This drawing appeared as a full-page illustration in the book. In the whimsical scene, the woodland creature children have their own table set for a Christmas dinner and Father Mouse lights their Christmas pudding.