Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Jul. 25--Fine art images created by gourd artist Larry Ray of Gulfport are featured in a six-page spread in the July-August issue of Mississippi Magazine, which claims a statewide readership of about 100,000.
Calling his work "art that rivals the finest sculpture or ceramics," the article cites the success of Ray's exhibits earlier this year at the Jean Bragg Gallery in New Orleans and last summer before Katrina at the Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi. He was artist of the month in 2004 at 13th Street Gallery in Gulfport.
Ray is completing a limited-edition, one-of-a-kind series of his work as a tribute to naturalist artist Walter Anderson (1903-65). The work to date features such familiar creatures as "Dick Whittington's Cat," "Rococo Rooster" and "One Pelican." The lines are burned and carved into gourds of varied shapes and colored with paint or leather dyes and sometimes, as with the cat, embedded with tiny stones, but always interpreted through Ray's long-studied and highly honed painting techniques.
The gourds can be viewed or purchased at the WAMA shop. Ultimately, Ray said he hopes to do at least 20 pieces, maybe more.
In the Anderson images, Ray said he is completely faithful to the lines of Anderson's work, but he makes the choice about what to emphasize and how to color it. His models are the colorless, almost flat linoleum block images that Anderson carved.
"It is fascinating," Ray said, "to get immersed in (Anderson's) wonderfully classic designs that are so complex and surprising, and burning each line into the gourd surface is almost like taking a narrow peek into the mind of this complicated and sensitive artist."
While he has an avid and lifelong interest in fine art painting, Ray began working on gourds less than 10 years ago, following a career in television production. Gourds entered his life after a neighbor gave him one from her back yard, which Ray figured he'd use to make a birdhouse. Fortunately, he went on the Internet to find out more and discovered the world of fine art gourds.
To share his knowledge, he held an Internet tutorial for fellow members of the Guild of American Gourd Artists to share techniques he developed for creating stone inlays.
Images of Ray's work can be found on the museum's Web site, www. walterandersonmuseum.org, under the shop link. Details: 872-3164.
-----
Copyright (c) 2006, The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
