Original Art and Designs to delight you.
As someone who understands the fundamentals of color and design, I see things differently. I have worked with large scale legacy projects and created art for major donor programs for local nonprofits. On this site you will find original art and designs made with repurposed materials. I am dedicated to using items that would have been destined for recycling or overlooked as valuable to create original art designs.
TEA BAG ART
GREETING CARDS
POCKET JOURNALS
Why Elegantly Frugal? The name is an homage to my mother, Roselle Oyer. She made every meal, even leftovers feel like a banquet. She lived on a teacher’s salary and did everything in her life with a flair of elegance and simplicity. This led me to reframe my thoughts about creative work. Elegantly frugal creations are the utilization of overlooked items that have the potential to be transformed into objects of beauty and delight.
After running a promotions business that offered a full spectrum of services, and helping to co-found the Raleigh Hills Business Association, a 501 c 6 non-profit business association here in SW Portland, I took a step back and concentrated on my family. I started drawing again and having fun with colored pencils.
In the summer of 2022, Marjorie Dizon of Dizon Photography was offering a photo shoot focusing on 40 women over 40 years old. This was an amazing project to participate in. My intuition told me to ask for a couple of the shots to include me with my set of colored pencils.
It was the next spring in April of 2023, that I launched Elegantly Frugal Creations with a line of greeting cards that featured my perfectly imperfect meditation mandala colored pencil drawings. The cards are printed locally in SW Portland by Bev Snow-Kuehn of B-Line Enterprises. I added the tea bag art shortly after that first month. Making the collages with found materials is lots of fun.
One of my pencil drawings (age 7)
I grew up with a pencil in my hand and I was always drawing. One distinct memory is in preschool when the teacher put the color wheel up on an easel. My whole being vibrated with joy, and I thought to myself, this is real and true.I saw things differently than my siblings, colors, shapes, textures and letter forms fascinated me.
Art & Community
Over the years I have worked in many mediums, clay, wood, metal, watercolors, oil and acrylic paint, paper mache, ink and more. Once I had a family, I created hands-on-art programs for children and became an Art Literacy Volunteer in the schools.
When I lived on the East Coast I worked in printing and publications in both New York City and the Capitol Beltway Area while doing freelance graphic design. After moving to the Pacific NW I used my art and sales skills to create original art for marketing and fundraising for nonprofits in Portland and Seattle. Of note are Community Warehouse and Lan Su Garden.
Several times a year you will find me doing a POP UP ART sale at GHM Boutique in downtown Beaverton, Oregon with a portion of the proceeds going to help local Veterans that the organization supports. Since its inception, I have been a featured artist at A Framer’s Touch Gallery Annual Tea Bag Pop Up Exhibit in Forest Grove, Oregon.
ART that speaks for you
I currently accept commissioned projects. I work with your business or organization to create custom art for marketing & promotions or fundraisers.This is a detail from a chair I did for the The Community Warehouse Chair Affair Fundraiser.
Click the contact button below and I will respond to your inquiry.
PERFECTLY IMPERFECT MEDITATION MANDALA DRAWINGS IN COLORED PENCIL
I have created colored pencil drawings that have been transformed into greeting cards, pocket journals, holographic stickers, postcards, temporary tattoos and more. Not everything is posted on the website. Please leave me a message via the contact button above and I will respond directly to your inquiry. Thank you.
Judaica Items - coming soon