By Rita Cook

McKinney resident Sherry Joplin enjoys Christmas year round since for the past 18 years she has been painting Santas, not just any Santas though, but ones that are made from recycled wooden lamps, salt and pepper mills that have lost their partner, finials or knobs or vases “basically anything wooden that could be glued together to create a Santa Claus,” Joplin says. “The more unusual the piece the happier I am.”   In fact, Joplin says her husband of 26 years has, on more than one occasion, sawed broken headboards, fence post and spindles all in support of her passion.

“Many of the pieces I use have no real value or use by themselves,” she explains. “It's the joining of these useless items to create something unique that gives me great satisfaction. I know that I've taken something that most likely would have ended up in the trash bin and turned it into art for someone to hopefully enjoy.”

Joplin has been painting most of her life, in fact she even used to use her paycheck when she was a teenager in order to buy art supplies, but Joplin’s Santa Claus line didn’t actually begin until she was taking a decorative painting class. One of the class projects was a wooden post painted to look like Uncle Sam for a 4th of July celebration.   “I couldn't help noticing mine looked a little more like Santa Claus than Uncle Sam,” Joplin says. “From that Sherry's Santas was born. I began painting any found wooden object I could for local craft shows and art fairs. I used old spindles that my neighbors were tossing out, old sofa legs and, wooden lamps from thrift stores were always a favorite.”

Joplin says that in a two-day show it is not uncommon for her to sell out within the first hour so “I eventually started painting/exhibiting during each show, answering questions about decorative painting on found/recycled pieces. What started out as a craft show "filler" item, became my best seller.”
For inspiration she says she is always checking out Christmas cards as soon as they hit the shelves, wrapping paper and even coloring books to see what the new "it" color is for the season. She also collects vintage Christmas themed Little Golden Books since “the artwork is so iconic.”
 
            

What truly inspires her are the happy people “who truly believe in the magic of Christmas and the joy it brings,” she explains adding that “An art group from another town toured my studio as a field trip a few years ago and one of the ladies remarked on how some of the Santas looked a little like me, rosy cheeks and all.”

Joplin says up to that point she had never noticed it, but it was true “with the exception of the beard,” she laughs. “I remember her saying that it's not that unusual because painters generally paint what they see.”
Her favorite pieces are the pink Santas that she paints honoring clients who are either breast cancer survivors themselves or have friends or family battling the disease. Her first pink Santa was painted for a gentleman who was struggling with breast cancer a few years ago. His wife visited the studio, picked up his Santa and she has painted pink Santas ever since.

Selling for $50 to $350 for one-of-a-kind, hand-painted, signed Santas, Joplin says her popular items and colors are the traditional red, green, gold and silver Santas, and, because each piece is hand painted she can take any request and customize the piece too. “I have had requests for baseball, soccer and religious Santas as well as many others,” she says. She sells up to 100 of her Santas per year and one of her clients has even collected around 75 Sherry's Santas over the years.

“I think what sets me apart is that I have the ability to see what's in front of me, visualize its potential and see it come to fruition,” Joplin concludes. “and I realize how truly blessed I am to still have such creative parents who taught me waste not, want not. Even today, friends and family often drop by with a piece they saved from the trash bin in hopes it might turn into a Santa and no two Santas are alike because they are formed from 'collected' pieces and then individually hand-painted.”

Joplin sells her Santas through direct order from her home studio in McKinney and can be reached through her email at sbjoplin@yahoo.com

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Rita Cook is an award winning journalist who writes or has written for the Dallas Morning News, Focus Daily News, Waxahachie Daily Light, Dreamscapes Travel Magazine, Porthole, Core Media, Fort Worth Star Telegram and many other publications in Los Angeles, Dallas and Chicago.  With five books published, her latest release is “A Brief History of Fort Worth” published by History Press.  You can contact her at rcook13@earthlink.net