Sharon begins her work as a gourd artist with a raw gourd that she deseeds, cleans, and cures before turning it into an eye-catching work of art. Gourds speak to Sharon and when they do, she not only listens carefully, she acts on it.

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"Sometimes I have to live with a gourd a while before it tells me what it wants to be," Sharon says. And living with the gourd a while generally is never a problem since it sometimes can take up to a year to fully prepare it. But when the gourd finally speaks, it seems obvious what the gourd should be transformed into, be it an owl, a decorative container, or even a person.

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Some of the gourd shapes have inspired Sharon to turn them into cats, chicks, hummingbirds, and quail. While others remain more traditional jugs or pots that are carefully painted or etched with a variety of designs and images, from horses, buffalo, to flute players to lizards. She sometimes further decorates the gourds with leather, feathers, beads, or even carved taqua nuts.

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