Eating Art Work: a Conversation with Food
I’ve been a writer and a cook all my life.
A few years ago, I started interviewing people, collecting their ‘Food Life Stories’. I'm fascinated by people’s lives and I've discovered that individual story lines about food and eating are powerful and revealing.
Making simple line drawings of food, using artist's markers, is my way of having a conversation with the food that I eat, to get beneath the surface of my own Food Life Story.
I call my drawings Eating Art Work. Some of them are wrapped in words, following a chain of memories, sensations, even recipes.
Somehow my EAW project became more public. I used a few drawings to put together a 2012 wall calendar for my ‘January birthday’ friends and family. To my surprise, they wanted one the next year and the next...
I experimented by having fabric printed, to make gifts for ‘June birthday’ friends and then there were Eating Art Work towels. The images are colorful and I love dishtowels because they're useful.
Prints, note cards and tote bags happened. Sock creatures are just fun to make!
What's next?
My kitchen towels are now being printed on sturdy, absorbent microfiber.
I'm still drawing, expanding beyond vegetables and fruits to edible and medicinal flowers and some other fanciful designs. I would love to know what you think of them.
It's an evolving story...
