"Getting into the Spirit of Things..."

Okay...so I took another class. My local art club, which seems to be getting me into a lot of artistic "trouble" ;) lately, offered a 2 day art workshop entitled "Out of your Gourd". So, since I live in Arizona, right smack dab in the middle of the magical southwest, let me ask you... How could I resist???

What you see posted above is my interpretation of a "Spirit Gourd". Our teacher, Mikki Rynne, was a human dynamo...a whirlwind of enthusiam and spunk! She called us her "Gourdies" and we loved it. What a splendid time we had. We could use ANYTHING (beads, feathers, paint, woodburning tools, stones, "yadda, yadda, yadda"...) to design our pieces. For me though...too many options...I really struggled to narrow down the visual possibilities running through my head and come up with a single design theme for my project. But, after several "heart-to heart" talks between my inner spirit and my gourd, I finally decided to do what I loved best. DRAWING! How simple!

I drew directly on the gourd itself a fine point Pitt Pen..no pencil sketches as a foundation. When completed the gourd was sprayed with an acrylic fixitive. That really brought the piece into a life of its own. During the drawing process if I made a mistake in my composition it "magically" turned into a vine or some other natural floral looking "thingy". You can see more photos and details of this project and my future projects on my "Spirit Blossoms" blogspot if you are interested.

Working with natural materials such as the gourd was a fun challenge. Feeling its powdery surface, juggling its 3 dimensional shape, and hearing lots of its "innerds" still attached rattling around on the inside was indeed a full artistic experience. From this challenge I, in turn, received an inner sense of peace, a feeling of oneness with nature, and nostalgic touchstone to the ancient past.

Hope you like:)