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By JOYANNA LOVE | Managing Editor

The Chilton County Arts Council will host its annual celebration of gourd art through March Gourd Madness on March 11 and March 18.

Gourd art and other traditional arts will be on display and for sale at the Chilton County Arts Council building, 500 Fifth Avenue N in Clanton from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on March 11 and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on March 18.

Organizer Mack Gothard said the event will also feature art classes and demonstrations. Art classes will include making bird houses out of gourds and making gourd ornaments.

“On March 11, the Tannehill Woodcarvers will be here demonstrating how they do their carving,” Gothard said. “We are honored to have them with us again.”

He said the excitement builds for the show each year because one never knows what the participating artists will come up with.

“Gourds, it’s a unique medium because you don’t work on a flat surface,” Gothard said.

He first became interested in the art form when a neighbor asked if he could do a painting on a gourd.

After his neighbor liked his first attempt, “she kept bringing me gourds all the time” often with specific requests for what she would like to see painted on it.