Obama Commissions LA Artist For Christmas Card

The Obamas have commissioned L.A. artist Mark Matuszak to create their annual holiday greeting card

The Obamas have commissioned L.A. artist Mark Matuszak to create their annual holiday greeting card. Matuszak has told how he was contacted a few months ago by the White House social secretary, who asked him to create this year’s card: ‘They wanted to do an inside shot, something home related’ said Matuszak, and so it was agreed that the focus would we on Bo, the Obama family dog: ‘we thought, let’s put Bo in front of a fireplace.’

The image sees Bo sitting in front of the fireplace in the White House library surrounded by Christmas decorations. This is the White House’s first fully digitally designed holiday card, as the cards are usually based on photographs, watercolour paintings etc. This time, Matuszak simply researched images of Bo before generating a new, non-real one using Photoshop.

The card is signed by the President and first lady, their daughters, Malia and Sasha, as well as Bo! It carries the message: ‘From our family to yours, may your holidays shine with the light of the season.’

47-year-old Matuszak is an artist, illustrator and concept designer based in Los Angeles. This is not the first time he has worked for the president’s family, having previously created illustrations for the White House interior design.

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