First I want to thank CafePress.com and Zazzle for providing such wonderful service in the transfer of my Heart of Dixie designs to T-shirts and other merchandise. These companies both do a wonderful joy of providing quality heat transfer products.

Next I'd like to thank the many people who have inspired my creations. This includes everyone from my art instructors at Santa Fe Community College, Jacksonville State University and the University of Florida, to the various professional artists I have worked with over the years in screen printing and design for the print media. This includes Lee Manners, Bill Page, Marvin Shaw and Phil Carpenter of the JSU Art Department who were instrumental in providing me with a solid foundation in the Arts.

Certainly I was greatly inspired by my dearest brother, Stephen, God rest his soul, who motivated me to become interested in the illustrative arts and develop an appreciation and love for drawing. Then there were the many women who inspired me over the years to produce works of art, craft and design as gifts and tokens of affection, which includes my dear mother, always Mom to me, who has had the patience, love and understanding to love and nurture not only me but by brothers and her grandchildren. Then there are the muses. Many I have lost contact with but remember with affection and wish them only the best in life! An artist needs his muse as much as food and water, if not more!

Finally and with recently regard, I would like to thank Deborah Ford. Her book, The GRITS Guide To Life was very inspirational. As far back as 1978-79 I had produced a southern bell design to illustrate the cover of The Mangrove, a poetry anthology published in Gainesville, Florida. Although I have been making heart designs for ages, including a "Heart of Dixie Dating Service" design produced way back in 1982-83, I had not realized how much interest there currently was with respect to southern belles and everything else southern. This changed when I learned about Deborah's work to promote the acronym GRITS (Girls Raised In The South) by featuring it as an embroidered logo on women's apparel and other merchandise. Apparently the success of a design relates to many factors: how a design concept is marketed, the current interest or popularity of a subject or theme; what is trendy, how well a design is executed, the technique used to promote and market a design, how well the economy is doing, etc. Running into Deborah made me realize perhaps now is the time to do something with my numerous south land designs, slogans and themes. So I decided to gather together all my my Heart of Dixie designs, put them all in one Heart of Dixie Designs Store, and see how everyone liked them.

Note: The Heart of Dixie Dixie Design series consist of all original concepts and creations and has nothing to do with GRITS or Deborah Ford's registered trademark of a southern belle figure and form incorporated into the acronym GRITS. My Heart of Dixie designs are all based upon an original heart template that I produced long before ever knowing about Deborah Ford's logo which has nothing to do with hearts (except for the fact southern belles can capture or break your heart). I have simply mentioned Deborah Ford as I have met the woman and found her an inspiration, especially when it comes marketing. Why her presentation in a soft cotton skirt and wide brimmed bonnet as a southern belle is literally a stroke of genius!

Deborah certainly is an inspiration, having inspired others to write music about GRITS and even express their own acronyms for GRITS. I've even thought of a few of these myself, i.e., Gents Raised In The South, Guys Raised In The South, etc., with the figure/form of a southern gentleman with hat, smoking a pipe and leaning on a cane. Of course I'm not about to dress up like that and try to pass myself off as Rhett Butler so well personified by Clark Gable in the movie version of Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind. This would never work for me given I'm too small in statue to emulate such an outstanding icon of southern culture. However as a graphic artist and designer, I'm most interested in promoting love, patriotism and the stardom of the New South in general, so have focused my attention on hearts, flags and stars which is where I shine brightest. Therefore any southern GENTS or GRITS designs that I cook up will likely feature hearts, flags or stars!

The background picture is of a dogwood tree in Montgomery which was in full blossom. The photography is one of many I have taken of area dogwood trees. This particular photograph was enhanced to create a pink dogwood. The Dixie midi file is courtesy of Dixie Midi Files.