Don Edmonds

Artist Information

Don Edmonds

Edu­ca­tion and Aca­d­e­m­ic Hon­ors:
Grad­u­ate of Qua­nah Pub­lic Schools, Qua­nah, Texas — 1954.
Fresh­man let­ter­man on North Texas State Col­lege debate team — 1954–55
Pres­i­dent of Theta Chi Nation­al Social Fra­ter­ni­ty – NTSU — 1956–57
Who’s Who in Amer­i­can Col­leges and Uni­ver­si­ties – 1956–57
Pres­i­dent of Stu­dent Body – NTSU — 1957–58
Recip­i­ent of Col­ley Memo­r­i­al Tro­phy, as the out­stand­ing under­grad­u­ate
mem­ber of Theta Chi in nation — 1958.
Mem­ber of Blue Key, Phi Eta Sig­ma, and Alpha Chi Nation­al Hon­or Soci­eties.
B.A. degree in Gov­ern­ment – NTSU — 1958.

Pro­fes­sion­al:
Admin­is­tra­tive Intern — City of Lub­bock, Texas — 1958–59.
City Man­ag­er — Texas Cities of Rose­bud, Don­na, Mon­a­hans and Hurst — 1959–68.
Pri­vate Busi­ness — Asso­ciate, Con­sult­ing Engi­neer­ing Firm, Real­tor and Land
Devel­op­er — 1968–70.
Exec­u­tive Direc­tor — East Texas Coun­cil of Gov­ern­ments — 1970–80.
Mem­ber — State of Texas Rur­al Devel­op­ment Com­mis­sion — 1973
City Man­ag­er — City of Mar­tinsville, Vir­ginia — 1980–85.
Exec­u­tive Direc­tor — Repub­li­can Par­ty of Vir­ginia — 1985–86.
Cam­paign Man­ag­er — Ratliff for Texas State Sen­ate — 1988, 1992 and 1994.
Exec­u­tive Direc­tor — Sul­phur Riv­er Basin Author­i­ty — 1991.
Con­sul­tant for Inter­na­tion­al Exec­u­tive Ser­vice Corps with projects in
Bul­gar­ia (1993) and Roma­nia (1994.
Direc­tor of Tran­si­tion — Office of Lt. Gov­er­nor Bill Ratliff — Jan­u­ary, 2001.
Home Rule Char­ter Con­sul­tant — Var­i­ous Texas Cities — 1998 to Present.

Civic Hon­ors:
Named Out­stand­ing Young Man in Com­mu­ni­ty by Hurst Jaycees — 1965.
Recip­i­ent of Annu­al Preser­va­tion Award by His­toric Tyler, Inc. — 2005

Cur­rent Mem­ber­ships:
Texas City Man­age­ment Asso­ci­a­tion.

Fam­i­ly:
Wife, Bon­ny, and daugh­ters, Amy Rice and Cassie Edmonds.

Hob­bies and Oth­er Inter­ests:
Trav­el, Art, Radio Con­trolled Mod­el Airplanes.

My fas­ci­na­tion with gourd art was inspired about 20 years ago dur­ing a vis­it to Peru. I was blown away by the Peru­vian natives work on hard shell gourds. Self-taught back at home, I have been involved with this art form since this time, along with oth­er art works in pen­cil, pen and ink, and watercolor.

The name of my stu­dio, Qua­nah Gourds, is a result of grow­ing up in Qua­nah, Texas, a small west Texas coun­ty seat. Qua­nah Park­er, born of a Comanche Indi­an and a kid­napped white set­tler girl, gained fame in Texas his­to­ry as the last Chief of the Comanche tribe.

Many of my art gourds fea­ture tra­di­tion­al North Amer­i­can native motifs. But I also work with Mex­i­can, ori­en­tal, Celtic, flo­ral, ani­mal and mod­ernistic designs. Also, I do a lot com­mis­sions fea­tur­ing high school and col­lege logos.

These designs are burnt into the sur­face of the gourd, col­ored with acrylic paints and sealed with polyurethane. Then they are embell­ished with such things as cabo­chons, sea shells, min­er­al for­ma­tions, fos­sils, sil­ver trin­kets, mille fiori beads (from Italy), jew­el bee­tle wings (from Thai­land), and leather lacings.

View In Person At Our Art Gallery in Tyler 

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