Twenty years ago or more I
started growing hard-shelled gourds. In Santa Fe I had seen wonderful
decorative pots made of gourds. I wanted to make gourd pots, too. The first
couple of years I didn’t plant very many seeds and harvested only a few gourds.
Then one year I decided to go all out. I bought seeds of many different-shaped
gourds and devoted a quarter of our half-acre garden to them. The harvest was
amazing – more than 500 gourds, a lifetime supply.
I created many pots from
gourds and sold many of them, but I still keep certain favorites, such as this
little one.
Somewhere along the line
some of the gourds began to look like human heads to me. I cut some in half and
started making masks. They were inspired at first by people I saw but very soon
the masks began to become themselves. That’s what happened when I made Naif,
pictured below. I thought I was making a Cossack, but the gourd chose to
express itself as an innocent young girl so I cooperated.
The same thing happened
when I tried to make a swami. He turned into a wrapped-up Muslim woman. I’ve
never liked her very well, but, hey, who am I to judge?
A hussy I encountered
inspired this one.
And she made me think of
the satyr. I hang them side by side.
I made a couple of masks from
other materials, such as a piece of bark that reminded me of the bi-polar
condition.
An ancient tricycle seat
rescued from a river bank became a local character I think of as The Red-Haired
Guy. He had a short leg and walked with difficulty in his built-up shoe. His
dyed red hair and his loneliness broke my heart.
When the middle East heated
up I made the Fanatic. I have never figured out whether he is a religious
leader or a terrorist.
Most recently I’ve been
interested in Native American mythology, which inspired Corn Maiden and
Grandmother Spider.
For a couple of years I
sold some masks. Wal-Mart Girl, Gamblin’ Man, Saw A Vampire, Hillary, and Wood Nymph
live with people around Lawrence, but Bill Gates hangs in a corporate boardroom
in Hamburg, Germany. I miss them and I’m sorry I put them up for adoption. I’ll never sell another one. The
masks are my people.
Copyright
2013 by Shirley Domer
3 comments:
They are wonderful. I am so glad you made a photo record of them for posterity. I would have loved to see "Bill Gates". Is there a photo of him? a vivid description?
The colors of the gourd are so rich.
Thank you, Linda. I do have a photo somewhere of Bill Gates, but not on my computer. It must be a slide and I have no idea where to look for it. He is the only mask I've made that has shoulders. Gates used to wear knit shirts with collars and a couple of buttons at the neck. I made a paper mache set of shoulders and glued the appropriate parts of a thrift shop shirt onto it. The collar wasn't glued, so it remained soft. He has an unruly mop of hair, a little mouth, and glasses I paper mached using the stockmarket newspaper quotes as the last layer. A visitor from Germany, an ambitious entrepreneur, stood looking at the Gates mask hanging on our wall for a long time. Suddenly he exclaimed, "It's Gates!" He promptly offered to buy it to hang in his company's board room as inspiration. I had to let him have it.
That's a great story. Look for that photo and post it and the story on your blog....for posterity who will say "Who was Bill Gates?"
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