Member Spotlight

Every month we want to highlight a member of the SC Gourd Society. Please send the webmaster information and pictures so we can spotlight you one month. This month the spotlight is on Marianne Barnes. Marianne is the president of the Plmetto Gourd Patch and webmaster for the SC Gourd Society. Below is some information and photos:

 MARIANNE BARNES, GOURD ARTIST, BASKET MAKER, AND ART TEACHER 

Marianne Barnes, also know as Maribasket, has been working with gourds for the last ten years. She has been a basket maker for eighteen years and an art teacher in the public and private schools for thirty-eight years. “I love the combination of baskets and gourd art. Texture is the core of my art.” Marianne works with natural and textural materials such as cedar and birch bark, sea grass, mohair and knobby yarns, pods, philodendron sheath, leather, etc. She incorporates basketry by weaving on top of the gourd with an undulating weave that resembles hills and valleys. Many times she adds a dream catcher or a tapestry weave on the front of the gourd. Lately she has experimented with burning, painting, and carving on gourds. Batik and whimsical gourd animals have also been added to her art. 

 Marianne is a member of numerous guilds and associations including Upper SC Basketmakers Guild (charter member); Upstate Visual Arts Association; NC Basket Association; SC Gourd Society (charter member); Ga. Gourd Society; and the American Gourd Society.  She started the Palmetto Gourd Patch, a local group that meets once a month to share and learn gourd art techniques. She is also a member online of the Gourdpatch group. She is not only an elementary art teacher but teaches basket and gourd classes at local and state workshops, conventions, and even online. She has a home studio where she also teaches classes. She has won numerous awards for her baskets and gourd art including “Best of Show” for a large gourd basket at Greenville’s Art in the Park at the SC Governors School for the Arts. She also has been juried in to the SC Artisan center in Walterboro, SC and the Foothills Artisan Center in Chesnee, SC where she displays and sells her work.

Marianne lives in Greenville, South Carolina. She is wife to Jim (who makes gourd birdhouses), mother, and grandmother of five. She is an active member of Dunean Baptist Church where she sings in the choir and teaches Sunday School. She loves to sing and has given concerts at several local churches. “God has given me some very special gifts. Because of this I have the privilege of meeting some very special people.”  

Marianne can be contacted at 864-244-3297 or maribasket@charter.net

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