Andree Dennis Newton was raised in Old Forge by parents who were expert craftspeople. Andree absorbed much from the demonstrations and stories of Abenaki craft and culture her parents so often shared with curious passersby. Her father was a woodcarver of totems and totem poles as well as a maker of snowshoes and pack baskets, and her mother was a weaver of sweetgrass baskets who put many of the finishing touches on her father’s carvings. Andree began carving wood totems and totem poles in the spring of 1990, two years after her father passed. When her mother handed her father’s tools over to Andree, Bemosha’ Art was born – Bemosha’ is Abenaki for “to carry on.” Andree found a further calling as a gourd mask maker when she was introduced to hard shell gourds with their mysterious, golden outer shells. Each “Adirondack Spirit Gourd” is a one-of-a-kind creation, carrying on a tradition of sharing the past and connecting it to the present, “freeing the creature encased within the wood.”

Products by Bemosha' Art

Adirondack Spirit Gourd masks - The Guardian, Mischief Maker, Moon Man, Porcupine Man - are created by Andree Dennis Newton of Bemosha’Art through a time-consuming process. Preparation of the hard shell gourds involves wetting them down, scrubbing clean the outer shell, cutting, soaking, and scraping the interior, and then drying them again before beginning the mask facing. The gourds are colored with stains, oils, acrylics, and sand, then adorned with unique materials including feathers, horse hair, porcupine quills, glass, stone, bone, beads, and tamarack cones. These mask creations are for interior display and can be fragile to handle.