Denny was fortunate to have two grandfathers that loved and shared nature with him in the mid 1950’s.Even when it wasn’t popular to respect and take care of our environment, they taught him to never take nature for granted.They taught him that we were given the gift of nature and with that we became responsible as the stewards of this gift. Denny’s last art class was in the sixth grade in Frankfort, IN.Even though he didn’t have any further art training, he enjoyed carving and whittling.He went from working a job of 16 hours a day to working 12 hours a day.With this new found four hours a day, he started growing gourds and made some wren houses as he had done with his grandfathers. Soon he was seeing designs that fit the shapes of the gourds.He painted these designs for about a year, but it seemed he was missing something.He was sitting in the barbershop one day reading PopularMechanics and read an article on a glass etching tool and he wondered if he could use it to carve gourds.He called the company to see if anyone was using the tool to carve gourds.They said no, but people were using it to carve wood.He ordered it and the rest is history. The first year he used it he won Best of Show at the Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio Gourd shows.After winning Best of Show at an art show in Bloomington, IN, he and his wife used the prize money and flew to Santa Fe, NM, and found several art galleries that wished to display his work.He is now one of the featured artists in the Kiva Fine Art Gallery in Santa Fe. Denny was diagnosed with an Acoustic Neuroma brain tumor in April 2006.He began thirty days of radiation in October, 2006, in Bloomington, IN.To keep his mind off the radiation, he started working on a large gourd and told the doctor his goal was to finish the gourd by the last day of treatment.“We took it down on the last day of radiation to show them the finished piece of art,” states Denny. The gourd wasn’t named until Denny and his wife, Carol, were driving home that day.At that time, they decided to call it Spirit of a Warrior. Denny has done many fine art shows from Montauk, NY to Sausalito, CA, and is recognized as one of the top gourd artists in the country. He names each piece and enjoys sharing the stories of every gourd.His favorite piece is called VisionQuest.Please feel free to ask why when you see him…at Talbot Street Art Fair, June 12 & 13, 2010
Talbot Street Art Fair 2009/2010 -Talbot Street Art Fair, Inc.
