Girls Can’t Play Trumpet

Posted by: gretchen on April 16, 2008 | 4 Comments

Musicians have been hot sellers at Girls Can’t WHAT? and my request list for musical instruments is ridiculously long. That tells me that girls are rocking the world from all genres with all kinds of sounds!

I’ve been quietly working to fill that gap by adding more Girls Can’t WHAT? instrumentalists to the shop. The latest is a trumpet player. Once again, I am drawing a blank on famous female trumpet players. If you can point me to a few, I would greatly appreciate it. YouTube videos would be even better since it would nice to be able to hear them as well. ;)

Girls Can't WHAT? Trumpet Player

You can find this design on an assortment of cool t-shirts and gift items in the Girls Can’t WHAT? shop. Here’s a sampling of items in both the light and dark skin tones. Read more

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I am my own experiment

Posted by: gretchen on October 15, 2007 | 4 Comments

Playing roulette with the quotes at the top of the page over last week has been fun. I never know what I am going to write about until I refresh the page. No cheating - I take what I get. :D

Today’s randomness happens to be from Madonna. I am no closet Madonna fan. I will openly admit to liking a lot of her music. As an artist, I am constantly amazed at the many ways that she can reinvent herself and carry on with her career. I don’t think her success is any kind of fluke. Madonna can recognize opportunity, works hard and is not afraid to take risks. Her words to us today are:

“I am my own experiment. I am my own work of art.”

Some might interpret that as “be unique,” but we have already learned that “unique” does not describe us. I think the key point to take from her statement is that we must not let others make us into something we are not. We must use our resources to be our OWN experiment. Don’t try something just because everyone else is trying it. Do your own thing. Madonna certainly has. Whether you agree with her choices or not (and let’s not get into that because I know that is a huge can of worms), Madonna has bucked trends right and left. She doesn’t look at the norm and try to fit into what everyone else is doing. She tries new things and we all learn from her experiences. Sometimes we learn that maybe we shouldn’t do what she is doing and sometimes we learn some really cool stuff.

One thing I’ve learned as I’ve grown older is that sometimes I think I don’t like something, but I find out later in life that I actually enjoy it. A good example (and I am so gonna get busted by my band for confessing this) is singing. I don’t like singing in public and for nearly my entire life I didn’t even sing privately. I was forced to sing in college classes, since it was a requirement to pass my ear training classes as a music major, but I HATED it. I’m pretty sure it is because I was traumatized by my grade school music teacher who once told me that I couldn’t sing. Regardless of her opinion, my grades in college from those ear training exams proved otherwise. I can carry a tune and recognize pitch. I majored in music, afterall, so what did she know? ;) Read more

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Bring Back Rachel Rachel

Posted by: gretchen on October 11, 2007 | Leave a Comment

I just discovered this little gem over on MySpace. Yes - Rachel Rachel has a myspace. Probably run by some fan, but hey…I hope they add me as a friend. Now who is “Rachel Rachel” you ask? One of the GREATEST chick bands of all time! I am not kidding. Though no longer playing together, this group of ladies rocked it out in the early 90’s! I have both of their albums (which are almost impossible to find these days) and their music is in regular rotation on my iTunes. In fact, several of their songs make my “Top 25 Most Played” list on a regular basis. Check them out:

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New Marching Band Design

Posted by: gretchen on October 10, 2007 | 4 Comments

Having spent the better part of my high school and college years in field formations and braving the extreme heat and freezing temperatures known to musicians as “Marching Band Season,” I was particularly excited when someone asked me to create a custom Marching Band design for the girls at her daughter’s school.   I tweaked their version into a more generic representation and have posted it in the Girls Can’t WHAT? shop. The hoodies and sweatshirts would make great Christmas gifts and would fit snugly under a uniform to keep the chill off during those final football games.   For summer parade days when no marching band uniform is required, check out the tank tops and tees.   ;)

Marching Band Design

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Is there black in your palette?

Posted by: gretchen on October 3, 2007 | 26 Comments

For the month of October, I wanted to start sharing some of my favorite quotes by women. If you’ve noticed in the top corner of the header, there are quotes that randomly change when the page refreshes. These are from my insanely huge collection of quotes that I have collected over the years. I like quotes. I just love it when people can capture a huge idea or an inspirational thought and then simplify it in just a few words. It amazes me.

To kick things off, I thought I’d start with a quote that is attributed to one of my favorite singers of all time, but in fact it actually came from the late Minnie Pearl as Amy Grant tells us:

“I’m thinking about a conversation we had years ago,” she says. “It was after Minnie’s stroke, and she was bedridden, but this was one of her lucid days. We were talking about light and dark. She was saying, ‘They’re both a part of life. For instance, what do you think is the most important color on an artist’s palette?’ I said I didn’t know. She said, ‘Black, of course. Without black, no color has any depth. But if you mix black with everything, suddenly there’s shadow — no, not just shadow, but fullness. You’ve got to be willing to mix black into your palette if you want to create something that’s real.’”

I just love that quote. As a designer, I love any kind of artistic references but this one is especially moving. In order to be real, we have to mix the dark in with the light. In order to have any kind of depth (think maturity, character), we have to experience the bad along with the good. If we haven’t, we are merely a bunch of pastel colors on a canvas with no shadow, no depth to our character. Without some black mixed into our lives, we’re shallow. We’re not real.

Oh and in case you have no clue who Amy is, here’s your chance to sample her work…Yesterday, Amy Grant released a Greatest Hits Special Edition CD with a bonus DVD containing 5 videos. It actually arrived in my mailbox a few days ago (thanks to the perks of being in the fan club - the only fan club I subscribe to), but I’ve not even had a chance to break the seal on it until this morning. I decided to shred the cellophane and pop the DVD into my drive for a little inspiration. I had forgotten how awesome the “Lead Me On” video is! Fortunately, YouTube has a copy of it for me to share with you. The scenery is just fantastic.

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