The Southern's Silhouettes

Any girl from the south has probably seen a vintage silhouette of an ancestor hanging in their grandparents house. If not, she probably had one commissioned especially for her wedding invitations or personal stationary. Since I changed my blog header to show my love of silhouettes, I thought I'd touch on them a bit more and show you ours. :)

Although this fine art started in France back in the late 1750s, it took America by storm, serving as the best way to capture someone's likeness. Before photography was invented, having a person's silhouette was the most affordable way of recording one's features.

After photography, talented silhouette artists were forced to take their trade on the circus and carnival rode. Sadly the art was lost for a very long time. But fortunately a resurgence of traditional silhouette art has been coming back for quite some time. I've always loved the nostalgia and formality of well done silhouettes. To see them hanging, preferably two and facing each other always makes me wonder about the lives of those frozen in time.

In late 2006, I commissioned artist Karl Johnson to make our silhouette. What he sent back was nothing short of perfection. Considered one of America's finest artists in this field, he's had his work featured in Martha Stewart Weddings, In Style, O Magazine, Traditional Home, and list goes on. I went back to check out his web page and saw that even though almost 4 years has passed he has not changed his prices! I was astonished because they are very affordable. As sought after as he is, I was surprised. But very happy because I want to get Matty and Jack's profile made as well. Wouldn't that just be darling to have all 4 of us framed on a wall? Currently ours is on a side table in the downstairs living room.

I also want him to do one of just me, so that I can have it made into personalized stationary. How cute would that be?! I've seen on Etsy that you can get some digitally made and printed. guess I'm a purist- there's something about knowing that a skillful artist made this- without tracing, without lines drawn. Amazing. Do any of you other gals have silhouettes? Any from the 1800's? I'd love to see them!

Oh, and I also wanted to let those girls that were having problems downloading my cleaning schedule that I'll try to work on figuring out a universal way for you all to view it. Mailing it out individually can be very time consuming, and I think the problem lies in the fact that I'm using the most updated Microsoft Office version. I'll see if I can format it back to an older version.

Happy rainy Tuesday y'all!

xoxo Y