CCCC Sculpture student takes top honors

Chatham emerging artist takes top honors at NC Gourd Festival

The theme of the 68th Gourd Festival exhibit at the NC Fairgrounds was "By the Seashore". Carol Kroll entered a large carved and painted gourd depicting the energy of the ocean. The exterior was done in deeply carved ripples, representative of the ocean's rhythmic waves or patterns one would see left behind in the sand. “I painted the interior in swirling shades of aqua, inviting the viewer to look inside, she explains. Kroll’s first entry in the Gourd Festival, in the novice division, won 1st place and the President's Award.

Carol Kroll started painting at a young age with a private teacher and continued taking art classes through her teens. She later attended Newark School of Fine And Industrial Art in New Jersey and graduated with a diploma in textile design. For most of her adult life, she held a successful career as a textile designer in the home furnishings industry. Then she needed to redirect her life.

“I worked as a designer close to 30 years,” recalls Kroll. “I loved my work and felt fortunate that I had a career I enjoyed and at which I was good. My company relocated me to Burlington NC, and then had a major restructuring, moving most of their operation to China. I soon discovered that textile companies all over the country were doing the same. Manufacturing and even design were outsourced. That is when I discovered Central Carolina Community College and the Sustainable Agriculture program.”

Kroll soon conceived the idea of combining gardening and design, creating beautiful sculpture using her home-grown gourds. ”I love growing things, but my first love, art, kept tugging at me. I wondered how I could combine them. "The carving and painting techniques I use evolve with each piece, and are as varied as the gourds themselves." Kroll is continuing her studies at CCCC, in the sculpture program; she is learning how to market her work through the marketing class.
"Creating fine art on gourds seems to come naturally, but marketing them is a whole different ballgame."