I'm 43 years old, originally from Dayton, Ohio. I moved to Florida with my family in September of 1973. I was two months shy of my 9th birthday when we moved to Florida.
At the age of 6 my mother let me draw, color and scribble on my bedroom walls. Those drawings and scribbles turned into pencil drawings of the Beatles and murals of trees and birds. By the time I was 18, I started working on canvas with acrylics and oils, and watching William Alexandria on TV to learn how to paint.
At the age of 24, I started college, and took as many art classes as I could squeeze into a semester. It was when I took a ceramic class with Gary Baker and a basket weaving class that set me up for a new adventure in art by working with gourds.
I have only been working with Gourds for about 6 or 7 years, and I have learned so much in such a short time. I started entering art work in local shows, but it wasn't Gourds I was entering, it was basket weaving on broken pieces of cypress trees that I got when I would travel to Mississippi. I really looked like the Beverly Hillbillies when I was coming home. I had pieces of trees, cat tails and whatever else I could find in natural fibers to weave with strapped to the top of my car and loaded down on the inside of my car with as much supplies as I could carry, and no room for the rocking chair.
Then, in basket weaving class at PCC in Winter Haven, Professor Baker said, "Why don't you try weaving on a gourd and make a basket?" I replied, "What is a Gourd?" He told me. Well, there it was - my new canvas, and I have not put that canvas down in six years.
You can do anything on a Gourd - you can use any medium, they are different shapes, sizes and one never looks like another.
I only hope that I can learn as much as I can and learn different techniques and never grow tired of my canvas. I don't ever see me growing tired of them.
Gourds are a major part of my life - I love them. And watch out if I'm driving through a town and I see a field of them or some for sale on the side of the road, because I'm going to stop for sure.
I want to thank my mom, my husband, my daughter and all my art friends for supporting me in my love for art. What a great inner blessing and fulfillment I get out of each one I make.
