Cedar Rapids artist designs his own Christmas cards

CEDAR RAPIDS - In 1969, Robert Peterson ordered Christmas cards from a specialty card company to send to his family.

He thought the cards, featuring golden praying hands on a dark blue background, would be something unique.

'I thought I was doing something special, then I got four of the same card back,” Peterson said. 'I thought, ‘I'm an artist, I'm going to make my own.' ”

He's been doing just that ever since.

This year marks the 45th time since 1970 Peterson, of Cedar Rapids, has sent holiday cards featuring one of his original works of art.

'It became a fun project, and that's why I keep doing it,” Peterson said. 'I plan to keep doing it for some time.”

Every year - except in 1977 and 1980 - Peterson has searched for a subject for his annual card. He says he allows the design to come to him.

'I don't go looking for subjects, it just kind of tells my subconscious, ‘Bingo,' ” he said.

He tries to complete his artwork by the end of October and then sends it to Allegra Marketing, a printer based in Cedar Rapids. The cards, which cost Peterson about $150 a year for the whole set, are usually finished printing around Thanksgiving.

This year's card features a drawing of the radiator on a 1917 Velie truck manufactured in Moline, Illinois, that Peterson came across in the Iowa 80 Trucking Museum along Interstate 80 in Walcott.

'I saw it and it was just, ‘This is my card,' ” he said.

About 70 cards are mailed out each year, Peterson said, but only he has a complete set of every 5-by-7-inch design.

Each card includes a short letter, describing the subject of Peterson's creation.

Not all of Peterson's cards have a traditional holiday theme. In fact, Peterson said there's only one card he considers to have a traditional Christmas theme - a drawing from 1981 of an ornament with holly.

Instead, the black and white cards feature his violin, a single rose in a vase, an egret he spotted at the San Antonio Zoo or portraits of iconic figures like Abraham Lincoln. The artist's favorite, he says, is a portrait of Albert Einstein.

Most are done in ink, but four creations are done in pencil. Peterson said he also etched two designs - one of a dragonfly - onto cooper plates. Peterson, who grew up in Mason City, said each wing took him about two and a half hours.

'I wanted to make sure it was correct,” he said. 'I didn't want someone two years later saying, ‘That's not right,' so I spent two weeks studying the structure of a dragon fly.”

Every card is framed and hung on Peterson's living room wall, a slapdash of frames stacked at intervals. By now, some of the originals have yellowed in their frames, but all offer something different.

'I have room for about 15 more,” Peterson said. 'When I get to 60 - well, I'll write a book then.”

The first year, Peterson sent a custom card - featuring an abstract drawing - to about 10 people, including his parents, siblings and other immediate family members. The following year's card also featured an abstract drawing. The cards were not a big hit, Peterson said.

'My mother said, ‘Well, that's creative,' ” Peterson said, laughing. 'A half dozen others let me know they absolutely did not like that one.”

So, Peterson changed his designs, opting to stick with traditional drawings.

'The sixth or seventh year, I got some positive comments about how people really enjoyed the card, even though it didn't have a traditional Christmas theme,” Peterson said. 'I decided to keep it going.”

Now, Peterson said if he sent a card to every person who asked for one, his list would be about 500 people.

Since his retirement, Peterson said he's been traveling and focusing on his paintings and sculptures, which have been featured in several exhibitions since 1971. The most recent is an exhibit of his paintings at North Iowa Area Community College in Mason City, where Peterson graduated in 1967.

Peterson said art has been a part of his life since he was 6 years old.

'When I was in the first grade, when I drew or painted something, I had an inner feeling of satisfaction,” he said.

Peterson said he focused on serious art when he was hired at Evergreen Packaging as a technical illustrator - a job he says enabled him to become the artist he is today.