The Cultural Awareness Center welcomed culture to its building once more on March 19 with an African American City College student who wanted to transmit love and culture through gourd art.
“[The gourd] just connected me back to Africa,” said Shirley Sanders, a 35-year-old business major. “It connected me back to being proud of whom I am.”
Through the two-hour event, the attendees were able to see Sanders in action as she gave them step-by-step instructions on how to create art with gourds, a variety of edible and non-edible fruits with a hard shell. She explained the origins of gourd art and described the connection gourd art has with cultures all over the world. Sanders also gave attendees the opportunity to make gourd art themselves.
Fred Jordan, a 28-year-old undecided major, came to the event to accompany his wife.
“I’ve done art before but never gourds,” said Jordan as he finished drawing two faces with markers on a gourd. “I don’t want to leave.”
Sanders shared her life struggles with around 12 attendees. She told how she overcame through the use of art. For her, making art with gourds became therapeutic.
“I don’t know if it was the sanding that I had to do, the wood burning that I had to do it [but it] became therapeutic for me,” said Sanders. “I noticed as I worked through each piece, so it was like, at times I could feel like a release, you know, of whatever it was I was facing at the period of time.”
Sanders wowed the audience when she held one of the smallest of gourds with her index and thumb fingers. She explained that sometimes the smallest gourds are made into pepper shapes by many gourd artists.
Sanders found her love of gourd making through her time at My Sister’s House, a 24-hour help resource for women and children impacted by domestic violence in Sacramento. There she said she came across a woman who was making art with gourds and became interested in the art. But her love with this art truly took off in 2010.
“What inspires me as an artist is just my life,” Sanders said to the attentive and quiet audience. “Love inspires me because it’s like with everything that you deal with in life. And this is the awesome thing about art, with every challenge, with every trail, with every situation you encounter, it is like love conquers all.”
She has created more than 30 pieces and even makes and sells gourd jewelry. Her goal is to one day own a gallery and have a store full of gourd pieces to sell. As for her event at City College, she hoped for something else.
“What I hope they [attendees] took was knowledge. If they didn’t know about gourds, that they learn something about gourds… and also all of the information about Africa,” said Sanders after her presentation.
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Twenty-year-old nursing major Shyloh Bealer was one student who fulfilled Sanders’ hope. She came to the event because it was extra credit, but after listening to Sanders’ story and background information about gourds, Bealer found it interesting.
“I didn’t know what it [event] was going to be about and I have never heard of these [gourds] before,” said Bealer as she painted a gourd. “I felt I learned something new here.”
Although it was not a big turnout, the few who attended the event were able to learn about the art of gourds and explore their imagination while painting them. Sanders’ and the attendees’ pieces can be admired through mid-April at the Learning Resource Center.
For more information on gourd art and where you can buy gourds visit the websites below:
http://www.americangourdsociety.org/FAQ.html
http://www.gourd-art.com/history.html
http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_artqa/2004-03/17/content_46365.htm
http://www.superpages.com/bp/Knights-Landing-CA/Greg-Leiser-Gourd-Farm-L2152627649.htm