Uvonne Jones-Most

Feel free to call or email me about any of the art you see on the website, or to commission a custom piece:

Artist's Statement:

I first fell in love with the natural patterns and rich, golden color of gourds in 1998. I had been creating fine art for 23 years and in these never-repeated, organic three dimensional shapes I found new challenges, new ways to express myself as an artist, and besides that they’re fun to work with. Sometimes I give them an African, Celtic, or Native American flavor that reflects my multicultural heritage, but more often I combine elements of fine art, design, craftsmanship, and glitz.

Preparing a gourd for painting can take days of scrubbing with bleach and water, drying, cutting, scraping the insides out, then sanding, and carving. I use wood-burning tools to draw patterns, leaves, flowers, fish, and human figures. Finally they are ready for my true passions: color and sparkle. I paint them outside and in, always experimenting with new materials and ways to make each one catch and reflect light in more interesting ways. Into each piece I create I put my experience, my imagination, and also a little magic.

I’m not interested in traditional methods. As I see images or colors in the world around me, I put them on gourds and take off from there. Besides conventional acrylic paints, I am continually experimenting with new media and materials, new combinations. Glitter interested me pretty early, but the simple kids’ glitter glue flakes off, so I experimented until I discovered a mixture of glue, sealer, and dry glitter that allowed the glitter to sparkle without flaking off. (I didn’t know I’d done anything special until another artist exclaimed, “You solved the glitter problem!”) I created crazy, fantastic colors and even shapes. My more durable “glitter solution” not only seals the gourds, but also adds an extra layer of color over the other glazes I use. Glazes are semi-transparent paints that allow colors to be applied in layers, and I sometimes have as many as ten layers of color on a gourd. It gives them a look that changes in different light and when viewed from different angles. The more you look, the more you see.

I put all kinds of stuff that I find on my gourds. I discovered Luna paper, a special iridescent plasticized paper that originally was imported from France, and now is made by local artists. I use the same technique as gold leaf to apply multicolored metal foils, and a variety of other adhesives to apply all sorts of things, including new materials I invented. I use stones, beach glass, beads, fused glass, opals, bronze leaf, mica pigment powders, leather dyes, and even nail polish. Gourd shards in interesting shapes become earrings, broaches, necklaces, or tree decorations.

A small piece can take as little as two weeks to make and some of the larger pieces took more than six months! It’s still a journey for me. No two gourds are ever the same. I’m still exploring and discovering new things to do with them, even after they are made. 

Creativity with my gourds doesn’t stop when the varnish is dry.  You can, of course, put your gourd where it will be admired as three-dimensional art.  You can pick it up and be surprised—at its light weight, at what’s on the other side, or even at the inside—but you can also use it in many different ways. My gourds are very durable and safe for food, but you should avoid pools of liquid. You can use a gourd bowl for fresh fruit—apples, oranges, bananas—and then wipe it out afterwards with a damp cloth. Use a gourd vase for dried flowers, or put a glass or jar inside to use it for cut flowers or as a planter. Keep it by the door for your keys. Potpourri in a gourd bowl becomes aromatherapy. Put it on a coffee table filled with wrapped candy for a wonderful conversation piece.  Put an incense burner in your gourd to create a unique altar.

It’s fine art you can use!

Press Articles:

California Farm Bureau Federation Magazine Article