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McKenzie Birnie has included gourds as one
of her canvases for the last couple of years now. Her piece "The Cradle" won
the top prize in the 2003 American Institute of Architects annual open
juried exhibition in Orange County. This award winning piece of gourd art is
available for sale in this online gallery. Additionally, you will find
pieces that represent much of McKenzie's emotive response to events in her
life, from "In Memoriam" which is a prayer for the souls lost in the events
of 9/11/2001, "Margie's Roses", which laments her mother's loss of home and
garden when she had to enter a home, and "Alamos Rocks", which celebrates
the colorful images that were seared into her heart and mind on a trip to
Alamos, in the state of Sonora, Mexico.
McKenzie uses several techniques and media
in her gourd art and craft. Her decorative gourds have included pyrography
(the craft of creatively burning pictures or designs into the gourd),
leather dies, paint, metals, paper, and even bougainvillea flower petals.
Several in-the-know art collectors have
already added one of McKenzie's gourds to their art collections, and her
first prize award for her piece "The Cradle" stands testimony to the fact
that these exceptional works of art stand only to appreciate in value. |
