Natural Canvas Niche

Alton Telegraph:

From slinging paint in the construction industry to carving gourds, artist Kim Dublo finally found her dream job.

Dublo, of Hamburg, discovered her first gourd in 2002, when she attended her first gourd festival and quickly began to use the plant as her canvas. She carves, etches, paints, pencils, woodburns and uses multiple techniques to achieve the desired effect with her artwork on the hard-rinded fruit. The demand for Dublo’s work has allowed her to work as a full-time, by-appointment-only artist with her own business, Special Interest Artistry, at 407 Water St. in Hamburg.

In 2009, Dublo and her life partner, Tammy White, bought the building Dublo now uses as her studio. In the beginning of Dublo’s gourd artistry she worked in a 13-foot by 13-foot room in her and White’s home, which is very near Dublo’s studio where she works seven days a week. The couple built the second story of the studio building last year because of the constant threat of flooding in their hometown of Hamburg, on the Illinois River.
Last year Dublo sold completely out of her product.

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