Nature’s Design Gourd Art by Rhonda Kesner

Rhonda was born and raised in Manhattan, KS.  She spent 30 years in Emporia and taught at Lowther Middle School North for 15 years.  Then after 7 years of traveling as a fulltime-RVer with her husband, Steve, they settled down on 6 acres north of Wamego.

Rhonda found her interest in art in her late 20’s. Primarily using oil paints, she has painted many songbirds and hummingbirds along with landscapes over the years.  After stumbling onto some beautiful gourds on the Internet in  2009,  she was hooked. A Christmas gift of tools and supplies were the beginning of a wonderful passion.

Rhonda is a member of the American Gourd Society, the Show Me Gourd Society of MO, and one of the organizers of the Kansas Sunflower Gourd Artist group.  She now grows some of her own gourds with pretty good success. Mother Nature provides the best mediums for art.

Rhonda has won numerous awards at gourd shows in MO and TX, and AZ.  Among them are a President’s Award ,an Artist Recognition Award, a Carving Award, and a People’s Choice Award .

Rhonda’s gourds can be seen at the Oz Winery . Swogger Gallery in Wamego, Sunflower Gallery in St. Marys and the Wrap It Up at the Manhattan Art Center each year. She also sends them to the Kerr Art Gallery in Kerrville, TX.

“I love that it is a never ending learning experience.  Gourds are like working in 3 dimensional  irregular wood. There’s nothing you can’t do with Mother Natures medium.”