ARTISTIC VENTURES WITH VINYL

"Autumn Dream"

"The Big Attraction"

When Pam Boyd traded her acrylic paint brush for a knife 10 years ago, she knew she was embarking on uncharted territory.

But could she really turn upholstery material into art?

"It's actually harder to put a picture together with vinyl instead of acrylic paint, but I enjoy working with a knife more than I like to sketch and paint so I decided to change," said Boyd, a native of St. Louis who now resides in Cape Girardeau.

"I found myself watching everybody else, trying to duplicate their work and that just wasn't very satisfying," she said. "So I decided to try something that no one had done before and I'm happy I did. It's probably three times as fast to paint than to cut vinyl and turn it into a picture, but I get much more pleasure out of it the way I do it."

Boyd, who first discovered her penchant for artistic self-discovery in the seventh grade, was rewarded for such a change in June by becoming one of eight winners of excellence at a contest in St. Charles.

"Judges were surprised I was able to create the kind of wildlife pictures I did with vinyl," she said. "They judged all of my work together, but I guess the picture of the bass jumping out of the water got the most attention."

A graphic designer for Auto Trim Design in Cape, Boyd finds her pastime offers a pleasant departure from the work that draws a bigger paycheck.

"I like my work as a designer, but it's nice to come home and work with the vinyl, too," she said. "It helps me relax."

Boyd received a check for $1,000 after becoming one of the eight honorees last June. "I didn't get good with this kind of artwork overnight," she said. "As far as I know, I'm the only one who is using vinyl to create wildlife pictures. Some people who looked at my work at the show said it made the pictures look more lifelike."

Boyd gets ideas for her wildlife pictures when she accompanies her husband on fishing trips. "I'll see something and get it on the Camcorder and then go from there," she said. "It usually takes a while to get each detail down. You can't blend in the colors, so it actually takes longer to cut the vinyl and place it on the board than it would if you just painted it," she said.

She also likes to take trips to the Bollinger Mill and other places in the country. "I've probably got about 20 pieces of wildlife artwork," she said. "I would like to put on a show someday, but I'm not sure when that chance will come. It would be nice to go to my home town and put on a show."

Boyd's work usually sells for between $100 and $500. "It depends on how much detail is in the picture and how difficult it was to do," she said.