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![[Gretchen Ceteras]](/gifs/gg/grc67522.gif)
AVAILABLE WORKS Visual Index of Her Work
Untitled 1
Untitled 2
Untitled 3
Untitled 4
Artist Statement
Gretchen Spreckels Ceteras (born in Eugene, Oregon in 1940) had the great fortune of having an adventurous mother who managed to take Gretchen and her sister to Argentina ('Mate' cups), Mexico (maracas) and Peru (train stations lined with gourds of all sorts). These exposures plus her time spent in West Africa in the Peace Corps in the mid 60's were no doubt the subliminal mentors that have drawn her to her ultimate passion for growing and burning gourds.
In retrospect, her time spent in West Africa gave Gretchen the awareness of the historical importance and usefulness of gourds: "Everyone in the village had a gourd for cleaning the stones from the rice or carrying the palm wine to the village or the groundnuts to the market, all undecorated in our small Sierra Leonian village. The gourds were useful utensils for daily routines and music making. In Nigeria and Ivory Coast, however, gourds were not only utensils but works of art."
It wasn't until her return to the States and teaching for 7 years in an Oakland Jr. High that she met her husband, John, and together they bought their small farm in the Capay Valley--refugees from the city.
She planted her first gourds after several years but had no knowledge of their growing patterns or curing time or that they needed to be cleaned. It took 2 years before she began doing anything with her first crop. They lay in their coats of mold, rather ignored and forgotten, looking very ugly.
She remembers vividly the first gourd she brought in to finally do something with and the thrill she felt as the first soaked section was scraped, revealing the beautiful mottled designs and the extraordinary hues of brown and gold.
Shortly after that John bought her first wood burner, and a friend showed her a copy of "The Gourd" (newsletter of the American Gourd Society). Since then there has been little time when a gourd hasn't been on her mind or in her hand.
Her mother (born in 1908) is her main gourd cleaner and her greatest fan but Gretchen's other fans reach as far as Canada and parts of Western Europe.
Gretchen's Dream Gourds have evolved from a garden hobby to an incredible passion. Gretchen treats each gourd as an individual canvas: its shape, texture, size and quality give inspiration, but the natural mottling developed through the curing process inspires the dreams. Gretchen can spend hours working out the dreams which she says are the dreams of the gourd. She marvels at artists who can create on a blank canvas and willingly admits her artistry is limited to gourds, "Working with gourds is very tactile and spiritual. It gives me such great pleasure that I haven't even tried to explore other mediums. My goal is to make my living through gourds and if I can make my living doing something I enjoy so much I will be most content."
Her whimsical worlds of 'creatures' and human forms evolve from the gourd. The artist tries not to let her carefully wood burned lines interfere or dominate the gourd's natural beauty. She aspires to hopefully only enhance the gourd.
Geometric designs or repeated patterns are done on those gourds with less obvious mottling. With these it is the texture and shape that give inspiration.
Over the 12 years that she has been working with the Lagenaria (hard shelled gourds), she realizes she has probably never duplicated a design, making each piece an unique, one-of-a-kind artistic garden sculpture.
She reminds us that gourds have been used by Man since Man developed the capacity to think and dream.
Admirers of her gourd art note similarities in her drawings to Picasso and Chagall and even Thurber. She notes it is all in the inspirations of the gourd, but from these artists she has learned anything is possible.
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