Cat in Williamsburg

A discovery was made at the Heritage Commons retirement village in Williamsburg, VA. All of the residents' apartments have a wooden ledge outside their 'front door' where they can arrange seasonal decorations or otherwise make a welcome statement for their visitors.

Coming off the elevator to the 4th floor I was greeted by three cats, suspiciously gourd-like in their bottleneck gourd shape. Naturally I stepped closer and investigated.  Sure enough, these three cats were different sizes of painted bottleneck gourds.  The base paint was black, sponged ivory, and what appeared to be starched felt ears (or what was left of ears). This one on the table ledge was the mid-sized one. A big one sat on the floor under the ledge, and a miniature bottleneck cat hung on the door wreath.

The close-up shows some of the details: the broken stem, the mangle and missing ears, the interesting eye treatment, and the sponged face and belly. Very simply done, but dynamic. The initials on the bottom say BV or BJ--hard to tell due to scrapes and fading.

However! I am cracklin' with ideas about making my own cats-you can see the beginning of my gourd cats in an earlier post titled, Storage Solutions for Gourd Parts.

Keep Cracklin'!
CAM


Work on this project has taken several turns. First, there are many versions of cats in gourdland by many talented gourders. A quick image search in any search engine will locate cats, cats, cats! It is gratifying to see so many interpretations of the same subject....added proof that people can work with the same topic to produce different results. As I point out to my research students, why plagiarize when using individual talents results in a personal product?

However, a discovery I must share with you is Betty Finch - a remarkable gourd artist working with this natural product to make gourd people, animals, and pets. Her innovative use of gourds to mimic muscles, limbs, and postures is worth celebrating. Anything I say about her work pales against the cognitive skills she must have to recognize the proper gourd curvatures and dimensions to fit into the anatomy puzzles of her art. I have captured one of the pieces here,
Cat Lady, because it includes cats however I highly encourage a visit to the FinchGourd.com website.


I am cracklin' with inspiration!
CAM