Hello. My name is Pipka.  My family came to America in the 50’s, as displaced people from war-torn Europe. We landed in a small farm town in North Dakota. The streets were not paved in gold, but my parents thought it was heaven.

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Eventually we moved to a larger city. My mother would often return to Germany to visit my grandmother, Oma. On one particular visit, she befriended a folk artist in the neighborhood. Thinking I might enjoy painting, she packed a box with paints, wooden boxes and books on German folk art and shipped it to me in America. The mailman brought the box to my door. I opened it on the dining room table, started painting and didn’t stop for the next 50 years.

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Eventually I opened a little shop in the neighborhood and began teaching folk art painting to my customers. I taught folk art but mostly I taught women how to have confidence in their own creativity. Although I was the teacher, these beautiful women taught me how to be a better painter and teacher.

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One winter day in my studio, as a blizzard was raging outside, I painted an old-world Santa for my mother as a Christmas gift. She loved it. It was such a moving experience, it inspired me to travel to various countries in Europe to research Christmas customs and traditions firsthand. These trips inspired me to paint the Santas of the world. I came to learn that Father Christmas was a spiritual figure, transcending all borders and differences, to bring joy to children and hope to families everywhere.

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Over the years, I’ve explored other mediums of creativity; collage has its own mysterious happenings, as does writing, and baking feeds the soul while nourishing the spirit. My heart always wants to create something beautiful, something that will touch a memory or yearning in the viewer, as it does in me.

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Making art is a gift to the viewer and to the artist. It is the keystone to everything I do, whether it is painting, collage or baking a cake for someone. Art is sharing.

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- Pipka