Hi, I’m Toni Curry.
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.
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.
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.