17.05.12

Even in this era of e-mails and tweets, there's something special about sending and receiving an old-fashioned holiday card.

Many area nonprofit organizations rely on sales of custom-designed cards this time of year to boost profits and achieve their fundraising goals. For the artists who create the images of familiar people and places depicted on them, the cards often hold a special place in their hearts.

That's certainly the case for Penn Hills artist Mary Lois Verrilla, whose 2011 holiday card for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is a return after a decade to one of her favorite places to paint -- Schenley Park ice skating rink.

"In 2001, my skaters card was so popular, it sold out," Verrilla says. "Jeanne (Caliguiri, director of development at the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society,) asked me to do it again."

Last spring, Verrilla and her husband, Ed, went to Schenley Park to photograph the site so she could paint it from a different vantage point. In 2001, the trees had skimmed the skyline, but in 10 years, the tree tops blocked the view. Verrilla left the original skyline in her new painting, trimming the trees with her paintbrush.

Source: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review