Rob Stanphill

Reinventing a familiar favorite
A fun new vision 
 for our artist collaboration piece.

For many years, our Keepsake artists have produced an artist collaboration piece—usually for an event—that every artist in the studio contributed to. This year, that piece has been reinvented in a fun new way, and Gregor Benedetti is sharing how it all happened.

“We started with a group brainstorm that included several artists and our creative director, Jim Tronoski. We wanted to reimagine what this new piece could be, and it became a really cool collaboration.

“We decided two artists would lead the way, with one leading the concepting in their unique artistic style and the second artist sculpting the ornament in that style. So, there’s a lot of collaboration between the two lead artists. And what everyone has always loved about this piece is that multiple artists are represented, so that isn’t changing.”

What is changing is that this year, all the other artists’ work will be brought to life through 
 the vision of that lead concept artist (Gregor), with Rob doing the sculpting.

Gregor’s sketch

Gregor continues, “We came up with this theme of past meets present that was inspired by the Here Comes Santa series (1979–2003). I wanted to lean into that tradition and use a Santa from our past mingling with our own characters from the present. So, I came up with this wreath idea. I love the symbolism behind the wreath, and it was easy to envision how a series ornament from each artist could have its own place 
 to shine.

I also really wanted to feature a Dream Book on this ornament. I don’t think we’ve ever done that, so it was exciting for me to make this a first. You can see Kristina Gaughran’s penguin and my gnome have joined Santa to browse the Dream Book, and I wonder what they’re peeking at…only they know what ornaments are on their Wish List!

“You’ll also see Terri Steiger’s commemorative ball ornament, a Joanne Wright reindeer, and a cardinal from the Beauty of Birds series started by Edythe Kegrize and now continuing with Emma Leturgez-Smith. There’s Mary’s Angels at the top right, a Noble Nutcracker from Terri, a cute little snowman from Tammy Haddix, and a gingerbread house to represent Sharon Visker’s Season’s Treatings series. They’re all interpreted in my style, so I was thinking, ‘Oh, I really hope they all like this in the end.’

“We have a lot of series ornaments, so I had to narrow it down to a few for the wreath and still make it look pretty. My idea was to create it in porcelain with minimal color. That’s my aesthetic, not too much color, but then we would fire on gold accents to make it really shine.

Wreath of Memories

From there, Rob Stanphill took over, and he is amazing at sculpting. At one point I gave him a rough idea of colors so he could see where I envisioned the gold accents, but I didn’t want to intrude on his process. I wanted him to carry out his own vision with the sculpting details, and he did a fantastic job.

“One question for the artists that came out of this collaboration was, is it OK with you for your work to be represented by a single artist and their vision? Every artist responded with ‘Yes, please! We love that!’ We all have different styles and ways we see things, so it’s really an honor to see our ornaments come to life through the vision of a fellow artist.”

“Reinventing a familiar favorite.” For Keeps 23 Spring 2024: 7-8.