I would like to tell you why many artists, who like me, have painted portraits and landscapes in oils on canvas, worked with acrylics, watercolors, and pen and ink drawings, have turned to the art of gourd carving.

A sculptor walks past ice sculptures at the Snow and Ice Sculpture Festival “Eiswelt Mainz” in Mainz, Germany, November 22, 2016. (Photo by Ralph Orlowski/Reuters)

Volunteers stand and read the morning newspaper while “waiting for the bus” at Henley Beach on January 8, 2012 in Adelaide, Australia. Surrealist artist, Andrew Baines recruited 100 volunteers for this human installation, meant to illustrate corporate workers enjoying nature rather than waiting in a long queue for a trip to work. (Photo by Morne de Klerk/Getty Images)

Dana Friedman, a trial lawyer who has spent 6 months of each year growing out his beard for his annual appearance as Santa Claus since 2001, greets children outside wearing masks as a precautionary measure at the Bay Terrace Shopping Center in Queens as the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in New York City, U.S., December 6, 2020. (Photo by Caitlin Ochs/Reuters)

A trapped car is pushed along a flooded street after typhoon Soudelor hit Fuzhou, Fujian province, China, August 9, 2015. The typhoon battered China's east coast on Sunday, killing eight people and forcing authorities to cancel hundreds of flights and evacuate more than 163,000 people. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A girl walks past campaign posters for long-time President Yoweri Museveni, as well as for local members of Parliament, on a street in Kampala, Uganda Wednesday, February 17, 2016. On the eve of presidential elections, a heavy police and military presence could be seen in the capital Kampala. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

A muslim pilgrim walks through the site where dead bodies are gathered in Mina, Saudi Arabia during the annual hajj pilgrimage on Thursday, September 24, 2015. Hundreds were killed and injured, Saudi authorities said. The crush happened in Mina, a large valley about five kilometers (three miles) from the holy city of Mecca that has been the site of hajj stampedes in years past. (Photo by AP Photo)

People look at damaged trees after a tornado hit Funing on Thursday, in Yancheng, Jiangsu province, China June 24, 2016. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)