Food Is Art

This article was originally written on August 6th for the Northern Sun News.

My husband has been sick for the past several days with a nasty summer flu. I must have sympathetic flu symptoms because I too indulged in a full-fledged movie marathon with him, watching hour upon hour of movies (3 out of 4 of them had Johnny Depp in them…yahoo!) and begging people to bring us chocolate cake via Facebook (everyone laughed but nobody took action). Two of the four movies we watched focused on the power of food to enrich and delight not only the sense of taste, but life itself.

Food is art; it brings up emotions and memories just as a painting or photograph does. It taps into that deep rooted desire that transports us to another time or place. Every time I eat a beet, I can’t help but feel proud of my Ukrainian heritage. I also think of all the times as a child that I turned up my nose to my Baba’s wonderfully rosy creamy borscht, thinking it looked weird (Pink soup? Really?) and smelled a little bit like dirt. Little did I know that I was probably breaking her beautiful heart by doing so, since we all know that food IS love in the Ukrainian household. Every fall when I harvest my roots, I take pride in knowing that my father-in-law is anticipating that first fresh pot of earthy, homemade goodness. I give him borscht for Christmas. Seriously.

And I think about the work that is invested in the harvest. Just as an artist goes through a meticulous process to get to their final creation, so too does the gardener;  breaking the earth with the hoe, nurturing the soil with bone meal and compost that was slowly created by the perpetually munching red worms that feast away in a dark, moist bin in our basement all winter, the careful placement of each seed considering depth, width, placement to the sun, the proper amount of soil, keeping the bugs away, ensuring the birds don’t eat the seeds before they’ve erupted as a seedling…..it’s all so much work to get that succulent, red tomato. And so worth it. 

That is why it is so delightful to go tromping through the forest and come across a batch of grape sized blueberries, or luscious raspberries. No work was involved in this discovery, but the mind knows just how much work and thought Mother Nature put into these delicious creations. And we Northerners appreciate this and take photographs of our findings and share our blueberry jam with our friends and neighbours without once ever giving up our “secret hiding spot”. The process of seeking out the wild mushrooms or the fiddleheads is part of the art of harvesting and not sharing our picking spots is just plain common sense!

On a side note regarding photographing food, I always find it entertaining when people post copious amounts of pictures of food on social networking sites. I understand it; I too have taken photographs of food. But when you go to a baby shower and post photos of every single hors d’oeuvre that was served and don’t take any photos of the baby, then you might want to reconsider why you went to that shower in the first place and perhaps just go to a restaurant next time instead. Haha

Food as art; it’s too big of a topic to cover in one article, and as I brainstormed my ideas on a piece of scrap paper, I thought, “This is impossible! There is too much to write about!” Then when I talked to my husband about my dilemma, he too said that it was impossible and that there was too much to write about, and then commenced to prattling off a series of other topics I could talk about that I hadn’t added to my list regarding food as art. *Sigh* Perhaps I will branch off on my article writing to bring you a series based on food and art, so that I can explore the various aspects of this topic thoroughly. But until then, if you want to watch a fantastic movie or two, (or it you’d rather READ the book which these movies are adapted from) then I highly recommend reading/watching, “Chocolat”, “Julia & Julia”, “Ratatouille” and my favourite, “Like Water For Chocolate”. They truly capture the concept of the passion that is absorbed into the fantastic foods that we eat.

 

Next time you’re thinking of popping an easy “slider” into the microwave and quickly filling your gullet, stop and think about the connection between food, feelings, creativity and life. Perhaps you’ll decide to nourish yourself instead with something that is a bit kinder to your body and your soul. Bon appetit!

Hairy Paper

Please note; this article was originally written for The Northern Sun News on July 30th in the middle of a heat wave. Even though there are many references to summer, the ideas can still apply! 

We are in the thick of summer and I don’t know about you but I’m basking in the heat, not daring to complain after the miserable 50 below winter we had. It will come all too soon so I’m soaking up as much vitamin D as I can, as healthily as I can. It means taking my studio outdoors and painting on my deck, hoping that the papers I’m working on will also reap the benefits of the positive energy being absorbed. It makes me reflective of all the different projects I have worked on outside and hope that the following list of past projects I have done will give you fodder for your own creative adventures:

1.     I once made “hairy paper” with my friend Martha. We collected dryer lint, shred it up with ripped up pieces of scrap paper, boiled it all, threw it in a blender, and then added the pulp to a kiddie swimming pool full of water. We used homemade screens to scoop up the pulp to make our sheets of paper. When the paper dried we learned that you shouldn’t use dryer lint to make paper if you own a dog, hence the hairy paper.

2.       I have been known to annihilate pansies by hammering them into paper. Pansies make an excellent imprint on paper when you pound the snot out of them.

3.       I take a small package of art supplies with me when I travel; my sketch pad, a set of coloured pens, some Sharpie markers, a few pencils, an eraser, and a variety of pencil crayons. I have drawn the Altantic Ocean on the beach of Meat Cove on Cape Breton Island. I have drawn the Altantic from the beaches of Holland a la van Gogh.  I have used the architecture of a chateau in Southern France surrounded by hedges dripping in hot pink hydrangeas as inspiration for a full coloured realistic drawing. I have gesturally sketched the fiercely strong jack pines in the Woodland Caribou Park that seem to defy logic as they pierce through the smallest cracks in the granite. These sketches are better than a photograph because it takes me right back to that moment in time, capturing all of the smells, the brightness of the sun, the breeze off the ocean and the opportunity I had to be truly reflective of the environment I was in.

4.       I put out pans of watery paint in an assortment of colours and then rolled large sheets of paper across the ground. Alexander stepped right into the pans, using his feet as brushes for beautifully colourful abstract art. The bath water was pretty interesting looking after that artistic endeavor!

5.       I like to tap into my inner Banksy (check out his graffiti online) by spray painting found objects such as an old, unfixable violin, and a large taxidermied jack fish and hang them in my sunroom. They always stimulate conversation and intrigue! I find most of these objects at the dump and figure if my art piece doesn’t really work the way I want it, then I can just take it right back there again!

6.       I have doodled with a Sharpie on my husband’s back at the Winnipeg Folk Fest, letting the music summon the lines and shapes that become a part of his skin for a while. Automatic drawing is a fun way to create without feeling like you have to have specific results when the drawing is complete. Simply listen to music, put a pen in your hands and start drawing whatever comes to mind without lifting your pen. Once the song is over, look at what you’ve created and see what happens when you let your mind wander to music. There might be something doodled in those lines that are worth exploring further!

You don’t need a plan to create outdoors. You don’t need a whole lot of supplies. You don’t need to first find something to do on Pinterest. You just need to sit down, soak in the rays, let your senses take over for a while, and trust that Mother Nature will give you some excellent guidance as to what your artistic endeavour is going to be for that moment in time. You won’t be disappointed; only if you forget to put on sunblock. Don’t forget the sunblock. 

Soul Sisters

I have stumbled across amazing people in my life; having moved around a lot in my childhood (by the time I was 12 I had moved 6 times). Even though I was a brutally shy child, and to this day I still consider myself to be shy, I learned that the only way I was going to actually have a life of interest was if I was both approachable and willing to approach others. 

  A serendipitous encounter in The Water Buffalo is what led me to marrying the love of my life.

 It was the coincidental meeting in an introductory Psych 101 university course that re-introduced me to my “bestie”. We spent the rest of the term skipping class and going out for coffee instead. I barely got my credit in that class but the development of our friendship was much more important.

 I can’t imagine my life without these awesomely fantastic people, and also makes me think of all of the wonderful characters that are yet to come into my life, whether just for a fleeting moment, or a life time.

While on holidays last week in South Dakota, I took a journey through the market square of Rapid City and came across a funky art store that sold locally made art. When I walked in I instantly felt at home. It was cluttered from floor to ceiling with doodads and whirly-gigs. Art was covering every square inch and most was made with re-claimed materials, was layered in multi-mediums, and screamed QUIRKY! Behind the counter, a woman was busily chatting with a friend, the excitement in her voice resonating throughout the store as she talked about her artistic world. I was delighted by the company and the environment.

When I had the opportunity to strike up a conversation with the owner, I pointed to a cluster of ravens that had been meticulously yet fluidly painted onto canvas. She staked claim on them, and I told her of my love of ravens too, explaining their meaning for me, and pointing to the raven’s wing permanently embedded in my arm as a tattoo. I could tell by her use of reclaimed material in the jewelry that she made that she too was a raven with a scavenging spirit. She said that she was actually getting a tattoo of ravens put on her shoulder next week.  I felt an instant kinship, and even asked her if we were long lost sisters, to which she replied, “….soul sisters. We’re soul sisters.” I bought a pair of earrings and left feeling a new revitalization with who I was and what is important to me in the world.

That chance meeting with my soul sister made me think of who I am as an artist. I walked into a place that looked like the artwork was all created with me in mind. I could relate to the artwork being created. I understood the perspective of the artists. I knew the process they went through to get to their final art piece. It made me think of what I am creating today and whether I have allowed myself to stray too far away from my true art form. I have a studio full of trinkets and  doodads that float around as visions in my head. I don’t make them into art because the demand isn’t there for what has been considered a bit too unconventional. I had a regional gallery owner tell me that “people don’t buy abstract art” so I stopped making abstract art. Why did I do that? Why did I allow one person’s perspective to alter my direction when just two states away, there is someone out there that has a whole 1000 square foot, two leveled studio and gallery full of art that is just like my own?!  It has made me realize (again) that there is a place in the world for everyone. I walked into a foreign space and was welcomed with open armed acceptance of true self and I’m going to dive in again, and start creating art for me and the truth of my inner creativity. It`s an exciting and beautiful thought.

 I guess out of all this, the moral of this story (not that I’m into sharing morals in all of my articles!) is that it doesn’t hurt to talk to strangers. There are more beautiful people in the world than not, and they all have something that we can learn from them, if we take the time to ask questions and listen without judgement. Thank you, Soul Sister, for revitalizing my funkydoodad spirit!

This article was originally written for the Northern Sun News on July 30th, 2014.