(picture taken in my RED HEAD days, last year??)

At the tender age of ten, I met a lady that worked with Plaster of Paris who taught me to make molds and figurines.  By twelve I was teaching others.  As I added to my list of crafts, it grew to include sewing, needlework, oil painting, and other media.  Ideas for my art have come during extensive travels.  While on vacation in Oahu I purchased my first gourds at a Swap Met.  There started a marriage of polymer clay and gourds.  Mixed-media artwork is truly a passion.  The freedom to create and explore is a driving force within myself.  The latest example of this is using silk dyes for surface treatments, “Silks” as I call them because they just look like silk.  The exploration of introducing various materials and then watching magic happen brightens my day.  I am a part of my art and curiously watch it happen, sneaking peeks through the studio door.  Using the gourd as a surface for my art has opened up a whole new world of enjoyment and exploration.  The gourd is from nature and each one is different, so much like the people of the world.

                        Affiliations

·        Northwest Polymer Clay Society

·        Columbia George Polymer Clay Guild

·        Gourd Artists Guild

·        American Gourd Society

·        California Gourd Society

·        Artist Trust- Washington State

·        Carnegie Art Center – Walla Walla, WA

·        Allied Arts Association – Richland, Wa.

·        Pendleton Center for the Arts – Pendleton, Or

·        Folsom Patron of the Arts – Folsom, Ca.

·        Z-Gourd Miner’s Club – Folsom, Ca.

Honors & Awards

·        Welburn Gourd Farm Gourdzette  2^nd place, International

·        Florida Gourd Show  1^st Place, two 4^th Place, Florida State

·        Walla Walla Helpline Art Contest, Art Achievement, Best of Show, City

·        Walla Walla County Fair, one 1^st Place, two 2^nd Place, one 3^rd Place, County

Publications

·        Polymer Clay Polyzine, Volume 3, Issue 11

·        Polymer Clay Polyzine, Volume 3, Issue 12

·        Gourd Art Today, Volume 1, Issue 1

·        Gourd Art Today, Volume 1, Issue 2

·        Gourd Art Today, Volume 1, Issue 5

·        Cre8it, “What’s Happening”

2004 Gourd Calendar, Month of April

Shows

·        Carnegie Art Center, Walla Walla

·        Pendleton Arts Center, Pendleton

·        Balloon Festival, Walla Walla

·        Allied Arts Center, Richland

·        Folsom/Zittle Festival, Folsom  

Developing Techniques and Procedures

·        “Silks, Silk Series, Silk Dye Techniques, et al” -   exploring the splash and vibrancy of color as used by watercolorists.  This was a process taking 5 months of testing various products and techniques to come up with the answers of how this could work on a gourd surface.  The end result is something entirely new to the gourd artist community.  It is a combination of absorbent ground gesso plus silk and wool fabric dyes and many types of salt (including table, sea, silk, rock salts) plus fixatives and final finishes.

·        Future Experiments – finding an acceptable means of photo transfers for the gourd surface that is NOT a decal.  

·        Future Experiments – exploring the encaustic wax method, usually only done on a flat surface, to go onto the irregular surface of a gourd. 

Dar Beck

1308c South College Ave

College Place, WA   99324

(509) 525 0999

      E-Mail

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