Gingerbread Time.

Every year about now, I begin to prepare for my gig as a helper at the Church Street School Gingerbread Workshop. For three weekends in December, the music room is filled with happy families creating masterpieces of confectionary architecture to the sounds of holiday tunes on the Steinway. The art room becomes a staging area for the helper "elves" who keep participants supplied with a plethora of sweets and tubs of frosting to decorate their candy-covered cottages. The designs range from classic to abstract expressionist but, all are worthy of a second look by Hansel and Gretel.

When my daughters came of age to be helpers, the job of making the frosting (two cups ater, one cup powdered meringue & two pounds of confectioners sugar, whipped to a froth in the reliable, old KitchenAid mixer) fell to me.

It's always a treat (no pun intended) to contribute to this community-based fund-raiser. This year is the second time I've had the opportunity to draw upon other than my culinary skills to assist in the event.

I tried to stay faithful to the image which sparked the idea but, was requested to "dummy it up" for the already stressed-out young professionals of Tribeca.

I chose a painting from the 1930s upon which to base my art. I wanted to be sure it read clearly as gingerbread but, in the end, decided the tight cropping had more punch. Such a charming painting, it's a wonder nobody has every parodied it before.

An illustration for the same event a few years ago. I noticed the girl on the right bore a faint resemblance to my daughter Molly. One quick click on the caricature filter in Illustrator CS2 and, Bingo: a family Christmas card! (The Penguin is a distant relation).