KUAR the Holly Jolly Trolley with the Damsels in Distress

We were asked to come up with a fun Christmas sounding song with many variations for the KUAR Arts & Letters “The Holly Jolly Trolley: A Ride Through Arkansas History,” so we came up with “Snow Angels.”

We used vocals, electric guitar, bass guitar, percussion (ride symbol, drum pad wrapped in foil, jingle bells), glockenspeil, banjo, piano, and harmonica to create a catchy and fun Christmas tune called “Snow Angels” in which two people go out into the morning winter snowfall and make snow angels before they have to go to work.

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Snow Angels
Snow angels, snow angels lying in the sun.
Snow angels, snow angels winter’s just begun (or so much fun).
You and I, we made them this morning at play.
Ten o’clock we had to go to work, we had the bills to pay.

“The Holly Jolly Trolley: A Ride Through Arkansas History” to air Friday, December 23, 2016 at 7:00 pm CST on KUAR 89.1 in Arkansas. You can listen to the show online at ualrpublicradio.org/programs/arts-letters and you can listen to the “Songs for KUAR Arts and Letters 2016” on the Damsels in Distress bandcamp page at thedamselsindistress.bandcamp.com

Happy Christmas from the Damsels in Distress!

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15 Illustrations: Key of G

I am working with Inktense pencils, Micron ink pens, and Canson Illustration 11×14″ 150lb art pad to create 15 illustrations (that is how many pieces of paper are in the art pad) of my current family life and inspirations.

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This work is narrative in content and uses color in a monochromatic way accentuating one part of each drawing. These fun and quirky illustrations are a reflection of the current joy and activities I have been experiencing.

“Key of G” is a musical family portrait in the playroom. G was the first note our baby played on her Casio keyboard. I liked this drawing so much that I made it into E’s first birthday party invitations and thank you notes. It’s super fun with all of the patterns, shapes, and there is that party pink color again. I used Inktense Carmine Pink and Fuchsia blended. I never thought I would be a little girl pink promoter, but goodness there are so many cool things in pink!

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Some of my favorite details of this drawing are the thread in a jar, the piano, the piano bench cushion pattern, M’s fun socks (completely made up), the rug pattern inspired by The Land of Nod,

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the play kitchen with the triangles on the wall (which the pink triangle decals are from the Land of Nod and placed by Gallery Gal), our fun family musical portrait,

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me playing accordion, E playing the maracas, Ein playing the jingle bells,

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the fun pendant (that I designed and embroidered), table cloth triangle pattern, and flowers in the kitchen, M playing the concertina (Grandpa and Grandma Sugar gave us the concertina – thanks!),

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and the musical alphabet banner I made.

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The inspiration for this drawing (wall done by Gallery Gal in Springfield, MO):

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The embroidery pendant I made:

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