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Shannon Rettig

Artist Statement for 'Where Birds Dream' Show & Silent Auction, Winter 2010

I live in Summit, OR on 60 acres. My husband and I are avid gardeners, taking full advantage of the luxury of space, the time retirement affords, and the bountiful manure our horses provide.  We take great pleasure in nature and the outdoors, spending non-garden time walking in the woods with our 4 dogs, skiing, kayaking and rafting, and experiencing the joys of life through the eyes of our 2 year old grandson Jai. 

Several years ago, my husband Ed grew a gourd plant. One lone gourd grew, but after harvesting, mold developed, and into the compost heap it went. Imagine our surprise the following spring when Ed found a beautiful, fully dried gourd living in his compost. Research followed, and soon we became true Gourd Heads. Gourds filled our lives - and our garden and house. Ed grew hundreds of gourds of all sizes and shapes. They were taking over and something needed to be done.

As newly card carrying members of the American Gourd Society, we started to notice how others dealt with the bounty of the harvest. Gourds could be painted, stained, carved, burned, well you name it, it's probably been done to a gourd. We started to amass tools and materials, and the next step of our gourding life began. My art background is in paper arts and textiles, so carving and burning were a bit intimidating at first, but soon I owned and operated a full set of gourding power tools. I began to tackle our back-log of gourds. I find great pleasure in working with the gourds, following the full cycle of their existence from seed to a finished piece of art. Gourds are used all over the world, by many cultures in a variety of ways. I'm inspired by the combination of utility and art, and most of the gourd pieces I create are containers or vessels.

Where do birds dream?  In a nest! I have created a nest from a gourd Ed grew, carving and burning into the gourd. Bird watching has become part of my life in retirement, and I keep a daily visual and written journal of what I see and experience. My gourd nest is from my imagination, inspired by the natural world. If I was a little bird, this is the nest I would build, the place where I would dream.