Gourd artist promotes Friday Art Walk in Zanesville

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – Later this week, the Art District is holding the First Friday Art Walk.

There will be plenty of local artists and craftmakers. Stoey Stout says his art pieces were inspired from his traveling abroad.

“The Gourd Guru Project came from the Middle East. A trip to Istanbul a few years ago — saw these fabulous lights, was transfixed by them, wanted a bunch of them, couldn’t afford a bunch of them. And thought, ‘Well, maybe I can make one of those.’ And that’s how the Gourd Guru Project was born.”

The lanterns illuminate the inside of Fringe Hair Salon on Market Street. Stout says the lights are all one of a kind.

“I go buy the gourds in April and they are already dried in the fields over the winter. I haul the gourds out, hand draw designs on them. These are all Middle Eastern designs or Middle Eastern inspired designs. And so after I draw those designs on, I drill holes in the gourds and the beads, that you see in the gourds, are actually imported from Turkey. So these are the actual gourd lamp beads. And so the result is just like what you find in Turkey.”

The art walk is from 5 to 8 p.m. in the art district. For more information, go to the Artist Colony of Zanesville website.