A familiar Christmas song begins: “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose….” But is that Jack Frost’s whole claim to fame? Just frostbite? I want to set the record straight about one of his far more important contributions to life. Meet Jack Frost, artist, channel of light and loveliness for a troubled world.
For this week’s column I’m including a photo of one of his masterpieces I came upon last March as I was about to exit Guy’s Café & Bakery after my Saturday morning coffee.
There, at eye-level on the glass pane in the door ahead of me, was what I regard as one of Jack Frost’s finest works. I couldn’t resist grabbing my smartphone and taking a close-up photo of it. When I got home, I cropped it and toned it blue, but didn’t change shading or a single line in it.
What struck me, perhaps for the first time, was how Jack Frost’s art is really about the light that passes through it. Indeed, if it were dark outside, there wouldn’t be much to see, would there? But his creative touch gives form, texture and personality to the light that is otherwise so easily taken for granted.
This reminds me of words from one of my favourite hymns: “Make me a channel of Your peace / Where there's despair in life, let me bring hope / Where there is darkness, only light / And where there's sadness, ever joy.”
Thanks, Jack. What a challenge for us, too: like your window art, to be channels of light, peace, hope and joy for our troubled world.
© 2020 Warren Harbeck
