Lisa Toth is out of her gourd—at least for the moment. The artist otherwise known as the Gourd Diva has been dabbling with canvas for her latest show at Cypress Gallery in Lompoc.
Her gourds will be on display as well, but at the moment, Toth is finding happiness spreading her brightly colored abstracts on ready-to-paint canvas. She explained that gourds often take a lot more prep work:
“You have to clean them, and if you are going to cut them, you have to cut them and then clean them on the inside as well. But canvas you can buy ready prepped.”
When the mood strikes these days, Toth tends to find her way to the canvas, which she decorates with bright colors and abstracts far removed from the realism she imparts on her typical gourds.
“If there’s an empty canvas, I’ll go clean that before I scrub a gourd—but I do have some gourds calling out to me to do stuff to them,” she said with a laugh.
Toth explained that the gourds, in a sense, tell her what they want to be: “You pick up a gourd and you look at it and think, ‘Oh, this would be a great doll, or this would be a good face, or gee, I could make a mask out of it.’”
She got into gourds in 1996 when she was looking at a book about making art out of natural objects, such as wheat-weaving or crafting with tree bark. When she came to a section on different things artists were doing with gourds, she was inspired to try it for herself. Soon after, the company that published the book offered a gourd art kit. Toth ordered it and got hooked. She planted the seeds and grew enough gourds to make several birdhouses, which she gave out as gifts. Then she moved on to creating dolls.
“The figurines, the dolls, are my favorite things,” she said. “I mostly like fantasy, so mine are various shades of purple, like a purple lady.”
Inspiration for her paintings comes from a different place. Unlike her vocal gourds, a blank canvas can sometimes be silent—at least until she starts applying paint. For her exhibit at the Cypress Gallery, she’ll show some space-inspired pieces.
“I had the idea of looking out at space and seeing a nebula,” Toth said. “I simply experiment with color, and I see this or that in it.”
Though she likes experimenting with her art and still enjoys her gourds, there’s one thing she won’t be experimenting with again: growing her own.
“I don’t plant them any more,” she said. “You need acreage for that. They’ll take over your yard.”
Arts Editor Shelly Cone likes to grow words to use in her art. Send her some seeds scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Aug 5-12, 2010.
