Our Spring 2021 featured artist comes to us by way of the Calabash Club of Silicon Valley. Christy has been with Calabash since 2003, making her one of a handful of the long-timers in the club. However, that was not her first foray into the gourd world.
Many decades ago, Christy's craft-loving mom was visiting from Taiwan. Wanting to find something special for her and her mother to do together, Christy came upon a class given by the former instructor and gourd artbook writer, Ginger Summit. Christy always loved gourds' unique shape, so the gourd class became the best entertainment for her mom's visit. "Although we did not get a chance to work on the gourd after the class, we have a wonderful memory."
Christy's background is in food and nutrition. After staying at home for eight years, she used her BS Major to secure a position at a chemical company making ion chromatography instruments and columns. "As a cancer survivor, I chose to work in a management group instead of as a hands-on chemist.” She then went on to work part-time with a local vitamin mail-order company as an office manager before retiring in 2003.
Christy has volunteered at Tzu Chi Foundation and the Cupertino senior center. It was there that she took up watercolor painting. Enjoying drawing as a child, Christy won many competition prizes during her school years. While working in the chemistry field, she would experiment with different art forms in her spare time, including Chinese brush painting and fabric painting. However, she decided to focus on watercolor painting. "I found the endless combinations of color and the flow of paints to be most conducive to my creative expression." Still, the class she enjoyed with her mother, decades ago, and the gourds' unique shape, always called to her. So, she picked up that gourd left for years in the garage and combined her abstract watercolor skills with the plant world's natural canvas.
"Although I admire works by Bonnie Gibson and others who carve on gourds, I had to avoid using those techniques due to a trigger finger." Instead, Christy planned to use various coloring techniques such as marbleizing on gourds, a method learned years ago. You can see these methods in her pieces titled "Family Trip," "All Your Wishes Come True," and "Three Ladies.” But still, she felt watercolors would be more controllable if she could resolve getting the watercolor to adhering to the gourd.
Wanting to not just paint her watercolor designs on flat paper, Christy wanted to make her 2D abstract watercolor painting into 3D art. During our S.I.P, Christy had more time to do experiments on gourds, and it paid off. The multi-media techniques used to paint her "Carefree Moment" gourd took BOD in the 2020 Orange County competition.
By applying acrylic, watercolor, and ink dye onto separated areas, such as the dancing ladies, the inner circle, and background, Christy is able to reach the effect she wanted to express. "I learned to pre-treat the gourd with the gesso and absorbent ground to help watercolor paints stay on the gourd from calabash member, Kennie Winter." Having resolved watercolor's issue adhering to the gourd, she then experimented with her favorite watercolor technique by using plastic wrap over wet paint to create her desired patterns.
Gourd art classes and engaging with other gourd artists is still one of Christy's favorite past times. It has served Christy well, and the evidence can be seen in Ginger Summit's book "Making Gourd Dolls & Spirit Figures."
Today, Christy no longer grows gourds. But she still has some homegrown manipulated gourds left in her inventory and uses them in often. For example, see Bundle Of Love on the next page. “I like its smooth and elegant curve for a perfect mom's arm. My next goal is to try flat manipulating bottle gourds in a pot for fun.”
Christy still enjoys taking classes and making gourd art in gatherings around other club members. She’s looking forward to when we all get together again and share each other’s knowledge of gourding and having fun! If you would like to contact Christy, she can be reached at christyctsai@gmail.com.