COOKING AND ART

      I was recently contacted by the Michener  PR department about making  a possible connection between my work in the upcoming show there and food. It seems like there should be an obvious connection because the books are cookbooks. But honestly, the connection is not really as direct as it might seem. 

      For me the books are windows. They are glimpses into the everyday lives of the women who used them in years past. They may reflect the political or social events of the time, as well as the culinary interests. Some of those culinary interests were directly affected by those same social and political climates such as the books published during the Depression or WW2. They also tell an interesting story about relationships...expectations that were held up as ideals for husbands, wives, and children. In books from the 1930's and 40's, often women were offered menus for entire months in an effort to help them with planning and on these menus there was always coffee...breakfast, lunch, and dinner coffee was served. My grandmother's percolator always had coffee at the ready for any meal. She also served a stack of white, sliced bread at every meal. My grandfather would have lost his bearings at a table bereft of bread and Parkay. Since food is so much a part of the everyday social fabric of our lives, these cookbooks are one reflection of the weave of that fabric that I find fascinating to read. 

   But why put them in my artwork? Because my work, in large part, involves looking "through" windows-  they are abstract windows into complex color spaces that elicit very individual responses. With the cookbooks, I guide this response more specifically because I reveal more specific things in the space - such as images of women in aprons, handwritten recipies, and other aspects of cooking and food. 

      I have always loved cooking. My mother came from a midwestern cooking family. As a teenager she bought me a series of books published by the Cordon Blue and when I was studying art history in London, I came across the London Cordon Blue one day. I stayed for their intensive diploma course. When I arrived home, a college graduate with my useful art history degree, I decided to cook for a living. My favorite job was working with Mark at Cakes and Catering in Stockton, where Meals is now. We made cakes all day. We baked. We made hundreds of Bouche de Noels during Christmas. On the side I baked wedding cakes for friends and family. Eventually I decided I wanted to teach art, so I returned to graduate school, but continued to love to cook for friends. 

      My significant other, Alexsandar, who hails from the cooking traditions of Macedonia and Serbia, loves to cook as well as eat out. Our blog, wheretwoeat.blogspot.com came from that mutual love. So...cooking is a part of me in a way that is indirectly related to my artwork, but then, if one's art is a reflection of oneself, then one would have to take all of those parts into consideration of the whole.