The Pearly Story Behind "Dusting in Pearls"


I always feel like a walking paradox. I can get out in the garden with my shovel and sledgehammer and love every dusty dirty minute I'm out there. I spend the majority of my life dressed in my "grubbies". Yet there's a part of me deep down inside that still likes "the frillies", "the pearlies", and "the sparklies"--all the pretty things. Maybe it's all the great classic Hollywood movies I watched as a kid. I don't know. All I know is that I can be dirty and sweaty and still want to put on heels when it isn't practical; buy the prettiest apron even if it will get dirty; and don pearls when all I'm going to be doing is dusting and vacuuming the house. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't have to. I've decided to claim it, celebrate it, and have fun with it... and create some "pearly" goodness along the way.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Creating...

Friday, July 17, 2009

Summer

This time of year always has me in the mood for pink lemonade, a big floppy-brimmed hat, cool aqua waters to float in and a place in the shade to dry off after a dip.

Recently, I've been fortunate to become acquainted with the work of some wonderfully creative women whose creative pieces "feel" like all those things that I think about in July. These are the things of summer...

Click on any of the images or their titles
to read more and discover more work by that artist.



















All these amazingly talented women are part of the group Unique Women in Business.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Little Elsie and Baby Jack


While browsing through old family photo albums, I came across photos taken at a my Grammy's birthday party when she was probably about 6 or 7 years old in 1919-1920. She and all the little girls at the party were dressed in pretty starched and pressed white dresses with huge bows in their hair. There was only one little boy at the party--little baby Jack with his head of blond curls. My mixed media drawing "Little Elsie & Baby Jack" (above) was inspired by those photographs.

First, I sketched the drawing by hand with a pencil on 60 lb Strathmore sketchbook paper. Then I scanned the pencil drawing into the computer. Finally, using Photoshop, I added the texture layer of old waterstained paper that I got from a Flickr friend, playingwithbrushes, and I added the color using my Wacom digital tablet and pen.


IMPORTANT "PEARLY" NOTE: If you are using Internet Explorer, you aren't having the most beautiful "pearly" experience that you could have if you were viewing this site with Mozilla Firefox for the PC or Firefox for the Mac which is available for FREE download at the above links.