Lynda was born and raised in the beautiful Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, and graduated from the State University of New York (Stony Brook) in 1968 with BA in Sociology.  She spent 2 years with US Peace Corps in Ethiopia as a teacher.  She received a Masters in Occupational Therapy from Texas Women’s University in 1982, and has worked as an Occupational Therapist at Baylor Medical Center (Dallas) and Veteran’s Medical Center (Dallas) for 25 years. Lynda began gourd crafting in 1996.  She has shown yearly at the Texas Gourd Show since 1998, and received many awards there, including Best of Show in 2003. She recently displayed her gourds at the Kerrville Arts and Cultural Center where she received an honorable mention.

                

Born in the upstate New York countryside, I grew up looking to nature for craft ideas and materials.  I would gather "artist’s fungus" from trees and etch on their soft white undersides, or wait for them to dry and use a woodburner to make my designs.  My friends and I would make acorn necklaces or pipes.  Every year we waxed colorful leaves in the fall, and used natural greens and berries to decorate for Christmas.  Over the years I have experimented with various media, but have always gravitated back to working with natural materials.  I loved art in school but opted to pursue a social work degree and later switched to occupational therapy because it used crafts for therapy. Today I still use crafts daily in my work and I have introduced gourd crafting to my patients.