As a teenager, Shirley was always
interested in art, first with pencil drawings, then
acrylic painting. One vivid childhood memory
is the crashing of her dream to take art lessons
from a renown art school. But that desire
still remained ... buried in the activities of life.
She purchased her first camera, a Canon AE-1 in her
twenties and fell in love with photography also,
creating images with that camera until just a few
years ago when the old taped together AE-1 had to be
shelved.
Meanwhile, life - family, career had
gotten in the way and years passed before she became
really involved with artistic endeavors again and
was able to once more pursue her dreams in the world
of art. This time with her computer as her primary
tool. Years of work in the Information
Technology field during which she developed a
passion for imaging software lead her to working
with digital photography and image creation.
Shirley has a B.S. in Management and
received photography training at the New York
Institute of Photography and has attended many, many
photography conventions and workshops--she is a true
champion of continual education. She is a
member of the Professional Photographers of America,
Arkansas Professional Photographers Association,
Senior Portrait Artists, the Professional
Photographers of the Ozarks, the Arkansas Outdoor
Photography Club and the National Association of
Photoshop Professionals. Shirley has had art
work accepted into juried art shows and received
awards for her work. She is co-owner of
Creative Designs Photography, a studio located
in White Hall, Arkansas.
Nowadays, Shirley creates her art
work, primarily on her computer, which is often combined
with her
professional photography skills using modern digital
technology with digital imaging techniques.
She considers her work to be "Interpreted Fine Art
Creations" Her interpretive images are created
using techniques which combine traditional styles
with today’s technology. During this process,
the professionally produced photographic artwork is
blended, modified and is indeed “hand painted”
stroke by stroke with digital tablet/stylus. Using
modern digital tools, unique looks combining mediums
can be created which are not possible with
traditional paintings.
