Freia - gourd with hand woven bead collar |
Migration Break - woodburning on gourd |
Bliss - woodburning on watercolor paper |
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I've been drawing since childhood, but serious art education didn't begin until after I graduated from the University of Arizona in 1971. In Tucson, I studied portraiture with Florence Quater. After moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, I took commercial art courses and was the lead graphic artist at Chabot Community College for thirteen years. During that time, I learned basket weaving as a hobby and discovered the gratification of holding artwork made from natural materials.
Next came an eight year stay in San Diego, California where I made my living as a free-lance graphic artist. On a whim, an old friend and I decided to meet at The Caning Shop in Berkeley, California to take a gourd crafting class from Don Weeke. It took a nanosecond to become fascinated with gourd crafting. Still, it was another three years before I moved to Virginia in 1998, retired from graphic arts and had time for gourd art.
After experimenting with every technique that caught my fancy, I finally settled down with pyrography (woodburning), bead weaving, hand-netting and carving. The main focus of my gourd art is “The Underworld” series. The Underworld (an imaginary land beneath our own) hosts animals, humans and mixed creatures, all of whom interact benignly. There is no room for anger...only wonder and joy. All the inhabitants have pink cheeks, and all the flowers have golden pistils. It's the law.
Since joining Art First in 2004, I’ve expanded my creative direction to include jewelry, watercolors, pastels, and flatwork versions of “The Underworld” series – doing the pyrography scenes on watercolor paper instead of gourds. |
