Yellow Critter

Description

Minnie Black
United States, 1899–1996
Yellow Critter
1960–96
Painted and embellished gourd
Gift of the Daniel and Harriet Fusfeld Folk Art Collection, 2002/1.217
While households have made objects out of gourds for centuries, Minnie Black used gourds as a sculptural medium. Black started her first gourd garden around 1960, and by the late 1960s she had created her own Gourd Craft Museum, a roadside attraction filled with her sculptural creations. Minnie also founded what she termed “the world’s only all-gourd senior citizens’ band,” who played gourd instruments of Black’s making. Her artistic endeavors and outgoing personality made her a media darling of the 1980s, when she appeared on The Tonight Show and Late Night with David Letterman.
(Out of the Ordinary, 2010)