Our Works

Our Works: More About the Artist and The Site

P.O. Box 159, Eton, Georgia 30724 ~ Editor (at) SouthernMuse.com

Southern Muse is the home page of the North Georgia artist, Deborah K. Pritchett, of Murray County, Georgia. Pritchett is a painter, writer, and web designer for this site. Southern Muse serves as a platform for her voice and vision. Pritchett's favorite painting genre or motif is landscape. Her landscapes and still-lifes have brilliant, jewel-like color. The landscapes include scenes of the beautiful, blue Cohutta mountains of North Georgia. Pritchett also enjoys portraiture. Her portraits are almost narrative in nature and sometimes humorous. For instance, “Sisters: Ina and Esther,” is a wonderful, humorous depiction of two Southern women, sisters. “Three People on a Sofa” is an interesting depiction of three blue-jean clad individuals who, perhaps, seem slightly out of place in the fussy, middle-class American sitting room, which would be more suited to a couple of ladies at tea. The still-life paintings show an influence of Cezanne. There are acrylic, oil, watercolor and gouache (opaque watercolor) paintings. One of the paintings, The Oven Bird, was inspired by a Robert Frost poem.

D.K. Pritchett also enjoys creative writing. Her range includes essays, narrative poetry and poems that feature strong, rich imagery. She has written several essays, including an essay on Eudora Welty's “Why I Live At The P.O.” and an essay on two war poems, Emerson's “Concord Hymn” and Owens’ “Dulce Et Decorum Est.”

The American South is another of D.K. Pritchett’s interests. She grew up in the South and is fascinated by the legend, humor and myth that pervade the image of the South, particularly the South of the Appalachian Mountains. Pritchett has searched the web for documentation on Appalachia. She has also provided a genealogy of selected families of Alabama, North Georgia, and East Tennessee. The main family lines are the Pritchetts of Murray County, Georgia (who came from Gilmer County, Georgia, and before that, from Buncombe County, North Carolina). She has also researched the Headricks of Blount County, Tennessee, focusing on the branches which moved into Murray County, Georgia.

The American South is another of D.K. Pritchett's interests. She grew up in the South and is fascinated by the legend, humor and myth that pervade the image of the South, particularly the South of the Appalachian Mountains. Pritchett has searched the web for documentation on Appalachia. She has also provided a genealogy of selected families of Alabama, North Georgia, and East Tennessee. The main family lines are the Pritchetts of Murray County, Georgia (who came from Gilmer County, Georgia, and before that, from Buncombe County, North Carolina). She has also researched the Headricks of Blount County, Tennessee, focusing on the branches which moved into Murray County, Georgia.

The history of North Georgia is of particular interest to the artist. Our old articles on North Georgia's carpet industry and the historic chenille-tufting industry that preceded it will have to be edited and updated, so they have not yet been added to the new site. Our old link directories are gone, but some of the links will be added back as they are checked for relevance.

The artist has also been a volunteer for Whitfield-Murray Historical Society, a not-for-profit agency covering Murray County, Georgia, and Whitfield County, Georgia. She was formerly on the board of Murray Arts Council, as well.

Our genealogical research focuses on several families of East Tennessee, North Georgia, and northeastern Alabama. The families include the Headricks (especially the Jacob and Polly Rice Headrick line, and Winfield Scott Murray’s line. Murray was an early resident of Union and Fannin County, Georgia, and his line has been one of my brick walls. We have some research on the Coopers and Bryants of Dade County, Georgia, and Jackson County, Alabama. Most of the content for all of these families has been moved to North Georgia Kin (our blog). Some of the pages may be edited and placed on Southern Muse again.

Most of our genealogy pages have been removed and the content placed on our North Georgia Kin blog. Some of it may be edited and added back to Southern Muse in the future, but it is much easier to publish it on the blogs and provide links from Southern Muse.

Our biographies and other history articles will be added back to the site. A few are already on it, and some articles have been moved to blogs instead. The biography of Murial Williams, late professor of literature at LaGrange College, can be found under “History.” The Murial B. Williams Award for Excellence in Literary Studies was named in her memory. We have provided some links to related sites.

It was not our original intent to move our domain to another host, but these things happen. After our old host sold out to another company, there were many changes in file management, site building, and other hosting tools. We finally decided to move to Google Sites. Site migration is a complicated and difficult process, so please forgive any broken links and missing content as we work toward completing the site update.