Statement

After returning from living and working in New Zealand for two years, we picked up a
book about gourd art. I had been impressed with (though creeped out by) Maori art in
New Zealand and having grown up in the Southwest, I have always appreciated Native
American art. Back in Santa Fe, we started growing and acquring gourds in 1998. My
background in art was sketchy, at best. I had been a cartoonist for the UTEP humor
magazine, taken a few drawing classes, and hung out with my mom, “Mah-li” Berke,
while she took every art and craft course given at UTEP in the ‘50’s.

Prior to this, my main art interest was in music, having been a blues guitarist and
vocalist. My first attempts at gourd art were awkward, but I acquired some faciitity
with the pencil, pen, brush, and pyrography (wood-burning) tools. The designs, so
far, fall into two catagories:

Geometric Designs: I was good in geometry, and my favorite toy was a spirograph.
These designs are improvised using a drafting compass and a straight-edge (a
leather strap). I eyeball a gourd to get a feel for “what it wants,” and draw the
designs directly on the gourd with a pencil. An eraser is invaluable at this stage.
I then etch the lines with the woodburner. I may then carve away parts of the surface,
or go directly to coloring. The metallics are mostly water-based markers...
they leave no brush marks! More and more, I’m using inks with dip pens.

Indian-inspired motifs: I’ve been studying pueblo pottery, especially Zia. I often
practice on paper first. Alot of the Indian designs are geopmetric but not
mirror-image symmetrical, I stare at pictures a lot, trying to figure “how the heck
did they do that?” Then I take pencil and compass to gourd.

I’m not trying to make a “statement” with these gourds. I’m just having fun and trying
to make pretty things. I enjoy the precision and the detail work, having been a hurry-up-
and-get-it-done slob as a younger man.l

The masks are each one half of a gourd.

When not gourding, I still work part-time at my “day” jobs: Psychiatry and Jungian Analysis.