Paintings bring Christmas book back into spotlight

Published 10:39 am Thursday, October 2, 2008

Anyone who has dined at Mike’s Cascade Grill on the Ridge recently may have noticed the seven beautifully detailed paintings displayed there. But not everyone knows the story behind those paintings. They are just a few of the 50 pieces of artwork created by local artist Richard W. Burhans that were featured in a holiday children’s book published in 1994.

“St. Nicholas and the Valley Beyond,” was the brainchild of Burhans, his wife, Sallie, and his sister, Virginia Burhans Sturm.

The trio came up with the idea for a book that would highlight the feeling of goodwill and love to others that they said is felt at Christmastime.

The characters in the book are all based on people in the Snoqualmie Valley.

“I had done a lot of portraits,” Burhans said. “When we finally started this book, I decided to use local people for it.”

So, in the mid-1980s, 53 people visited the Burhans’ residence, where they dressed in various costumes to fit the roles and were videotaped in a number of postures and lighting arrangements. Burhans then painted each figure from the frames of the videotape.

Burhans said that they sent the book to the Penguin Group in New York to see about getting it published.

“They decided they wanted to do the book but wanted a nationally recognizable author,” he said.

The trio was given a list of five up-and-coming authors, but Ellen Kushner’s book “Thomas the Rhymer,” the only book she had written at the time, stopped them in their tracks.

“Her book was beautifully written, to bring us to tears,” Richard Burhans said.

Kushner took the idea and made it a story all her own. When the book was published in 1994, 50,000 copies were printed and soon sold out.

What makes the book unique, Burhans said, is that it is “about the little boy or girl in us who comes out at this special time of year. It’s the neatest thing in the whole world.”

He said the book draws attention to this time of year and takes the season out of the religious and commercial realm.

“This book is not a Christmas book, as such,” he said. “It is not a jingle bell book.”

What the book is, however, is a story of giving, love and caring. And displaying the paintings featured in it at Mike’s has brought it back into the spotlight more than 10 years after it was originally published.

“Every day, people ask us about them,” said Mike Brown, owner of Mike’s Cascade Grill. “It’s a lot of fun for us.”

There is a copy of the book, complete with its original vinyl cover that Richard Burhans insisted on because he wanted children to be able to put their hands on it without getting it sticky, that circulates through the restaurant. Brown said it visits many tables throughout the day.

It was Snoqualmie mayor-elect Matt Larson who actually suggested that Brown display some of Burhans’ work in his restaurant. When Brown and Burhans got together, Brown asked Burhans if he could display the Christmas paintings because it would be perfect timing with the holidays.

Burhans’ work is already on display at several locations throughout the Valley, including Starbucks Coffee, The Veronica Wine & Tapas Bar and Mignone Interiors. He also created a mural in the North Bend Library. But his work had never been displayed on the Ridge, and Larson told Burhans he thought it should be.

“I thought what perfect timing this is,” Brown said about the Christmas paintings. “I’m honored to show such beautiful artwork in the restaurant that coincides with the holidays.”

Burhans is very pleased to display his work on the Ridge. He was the vice president of the Boundary Review Board and said he stood up for the Ridge because he thought it would be “an important addition to the community.

“I’m absolutely delighted with the young people and the talent that are part of the Snoqualmie Valley,” he said.

Burhans said the paintings he did for the book will never be sold. A few have been donated to children’s hospitals to raise money, but he said he’d rather see them displayed publicly than sold to someone.

“We’d rather see them used like this where people can ask Mike about them and get the story behind them,” he said.

Part of that story is that each painting was very carefully researched. Paintings in the book that feature a bakery and a woodworker’s shop, among other locations, are incredibly accurate, he said.

“Every one of these paintings in every one of these shops has been researched so I don’t have to get a letter from a carpenter” or someone else telling him he depicted something incorrectly, he said.

While new copies of the book are no longer available, used copies are still being sold at www.amazon.com and through other used book Web sites.