‘Nature’s work of art’
Artist creates gorgeous gourds
Taking something ugly and making it beautiful might be a definition of art.
If so, Rebecca Narramore’s creation of gourd art qualifies. She makes gourds gorgeous.
There’s an element of spirit to her work, too. She is taking something discarded, dead and shell-like from nature and giving it life and spirit.
That, too, might be a definition of art.
“I love natural things, and gourds are fruits of plants. They are nature’s work of art first, and then they become a work of art for me,” Rebecca said of her craft and art.
What could be more humdrum than a gourd? It’s been around a long time in human history. Scientists say some 12,000 to 13,000 years. It may have been the first domesticated plant. Seeds were set aside, cultivated and nurtured.
Rebecca gets most of her gourds from California, where the Welburn Gourd Art Farm grows some 350,000 year. They ship the gourds to order. Skinny, bottle-necked or canteen shaped, flat-bottomed, thick shelled, easy-to-clean gourds. And occasionally Rebecca will see some gourds piled up in a roadside yard and ask her husband, Dub, to stop the car, turn around and go back.
Then she looks at the gourd. And looks some more, until the gourd’s shape begins to tells her what it wants to become. Usually, she said, “I start by deciding the color first. Whether a solid color or blended. Then, I begin to drill holes for the weaving and, once when the weaving starts, the gourd just begins to evolve on its own.”
The art grows with a three-dimensional shape rather than upon a flat surface, and this is how Rebecca herself prefers to live. Her house in the woods around Linden is almost all windows. She is surrounded by nature.
Rebecca said she did not take up art until her 30s. A product of Linden in her family and school life, she had gone to college for bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English at Stephen F. Austin University before earning a doctorate in education at Texas A&M UniversityCommerce.
Then, several of her career years were spent in Austin watching and learning the political process as an administrative assistant for a local representative.
But she had grown up around art.
“Richard, my brother, is the artist. I cannot hold a candle to him. And so were my father and mother, Elmer and Marian Bowden. Elmer could do anything with his hands.”
Rebecca did, however, take some lessons in pen-and-pencil drawing and found she had some facility for that. Her artistic nature began to express itself. Then she discovered gourd art and took a few lessons, especially in learning how to weave decorations onto the gourds using pine needles.
Gourds are inedible and have no real culinary use. But their versatility and odd shapes make them a favorite medium for artists, crafters and musicians alike.
When growing in the fields, they are green with skin that’s smooth and wax-like. Once dried, their skin become hard like wood, ideal for carving, painting or burning. The hollow, dried-out shell can be made into many things, from musical instruments to bird houses, wall art, masks and containers.
To hold a work of gourd art is to receive a distinct feel and impression. It is easy to see how one might paint, carve or burn images upon them. Or to wax and polish their sides.
Rebecca said it usually takes her more than 50 hours to make a piece of her gourd art. She has to imagine the beauty that’s within this basically unattractive object. This takes time. No one, not even the artists, understand how this image comes to mind.
“When I start, I don’t know what the finished product will look like. I just know when doing it, the process kinda sticks to me and tells me how it needs to be,” Rebecca said.