By KAREN BINDER
Illinois correspondent

TUSCOLA, Ill. — Meet Earl and Pearl Barker, two of the best-traveled dogs in rural Illinois – and the main characters in surprisingly illustrative travelogues about the state’s rural corners.
These two hounds are the creation of Cindy and Kirby Pringle of Tuscola, south of Champaign. Cindy’s award-winning photographic talents are unleashed in the “Happy Tails” picture book series written by Kirby, a former journalist.

Earl and Pearl on the Farm and The Call of Nature are fun romps of the dog couple through recognizable and beloved Illinois countryside features.

There’s Pearl connecting her laptop computer to the “Wy Fy” internet connection in front of the Wash Dry laundromat in Shawneetown, Earl standing in front of the Twistee Treat in Livingston in Madison County with a cone in paw and the pair dressed in their country togs in the middle of a cornfield in their version of the iconic “American Gothic” painting by Grant Wood.
“We’ve always taken photographs of our dogs and we decided seven years ago to focus on ‘dog people,’” Cindy said. “We have a lot of fun coming up with the ideas and then watching them come to life.”

The couple work through their gallery, Dogtown Artworks World Headquarters, in Tuscola. Besides their “dog people” photographs, they also sell framed photographs, matted photographs, their two “Happy Tails” books, blank greeting cards and pins. They also do studio dog portraits and can even turn them into custom “dog people,” as well as portraits of regular people.

The models are the Pringle’s own pets, Buster (aka Earl) and Barney (aka Pearl), which are rescue dogs. The first book, Earl and Pearl on the Farm, follows the hounds from points A (apples) to Z (zinnias) and every place in between.

The Call of Nature finds Pearl Barker with her first computer and cell phone. As she’s quickly becoming an “obsessed tech-hound,” Earl decides it’s time for a vacation to visit his twin sister, Earlene, in order to get Pearl disconnected from technology and reconnected to nature.

It’s taken about a year to write and photograph each book. A third book in the series is set for release in 2010.

“We really love to make people laugh and see them enjoy the photographs,” Kirby said. “We call it ‘happy art.’”

For more information, contact the Pringles at 217-689-4575 or by e-mail at either Pringle.Photography@me.com or Pringle.Photography@gmail.com or visit www.dogtownartworks.com