Often while enjoying a meal or walking down the street something ordinary and often fleeting may catch my eye. In the middle of dessert to the surprise of my friends I began admiring the artistic quality of my half eaten dessert and had an impromptu photo session with my brownie and gelato.
Abstract Dessert: For a moment it was art.
When I cook I find it difficult to stick with a recipe. I almost always throw something in a pot that wasn’t called for in a recipe or buy something strange to cook. Yesterday my experimental nature got the better of me when I purchased a whole fish at my local Japanese food market.
Porgy marinating in soy sauce, cooking sake and sesame oil.
On a whim I decided to challenge myself to cook a whole fish (something I’d never done before). At the check-out counter I felt a bit of pride in my effort as I thought I heard the the woman bagging my groceries say in Japanese to the woman at the register that it was rare to see an American purchasing a whole fish.
But when I made it home and began preparing the fish, I just felt pity for the little guy as I held his limp body in my hands and he stared back at me. Not exactly a fish stick.
The taste was wonderful but I think I will be cooking vegetarian for the remainder of the week.
I’ve been trying to push myself away from the table of these small scale food paintings. I’ve been working this week to dig into some larger pieces for a spell, but they are a lot of fun to play and experiment with. Today I began messing with a creamy textured soft mixing white with a pallet knife. Initially I only intended to apply the thick paint as the creamy topping on the cupcakes but continued using the technique throughout the piece.
I enjoy the way it can appear to be abstract shapes but at the same time it is clearly cupcakes.
Wayne Thiebaud who has inspired me to go in this direction noted about realism, that an artist “can enliven a construction of paint by doing any number of manipulations and additions to what he sees,” which makes it possible for representational art to be “both abstract and real simultaneously.”
I like the concept and the day’s discovery.
Small oil painting of Cupcakes with butter cream icing.
These days when I am in my studio painting my wife walks in and rarely comments on what I am working on. Earlier this week she walks in and I am startled by her emphatic statement, “Now that is nice!” in reference to a small still life of three pears.
Not having much luck selling my paintings on my own I figured I would give the Etsy community a try. With a slow start well in hand, I am wondering if the rest of the public is reacting to my work the same why my wife does. So rather that continuing to try to sell my more expressive work I began to try to think of a subject matter and style that might have a more universal appeal, which started with the pears.
So I have been borrowing from one of my favorite painters Wayne Thiebaud. I should probably feel a little guilty “borrowing” so heavily from him but, he said himself . . .
“I’m very influenced by the tradition of painting and not at all self-conscious about identifying my sources. I actually steal things from people that I can use … just blatant plagiarism.”
That being said I am “stealing” from Thiebaud’s colorful foods paintings. His food paintings tend to encapsulate much of what I like to think of as good old fashioned Americana, which conjures up images of diners and drive-ins and ice cream stands. For me, these paintings evoke a distilled Norman Rockwell-esk feeling, a pure uncluttered memory or daydream that is very personal, because they tend to spark memories rather than tell a full story.
It is natural for me to paint these subjects because I love painting and I love food. I plan on doing paintings of candies and cakes but I also will detour a bit into some of my own experience by doing paintings of sushi. More precisely kaiten sushi, which is common place in Japan and yet appearing more and more in other countries. Kaiten sushi is not just about the food but also the experience of waiting for just the right plate of food to work it’s way around the conveyor belt to your grasp. Just as much as I enjoyed the experience and taste of a corn dog at a county fair, I enjoy the almost roller coaster like journey of the kaiten sushi.
These are a part of a series of small scale paintings of food.
My wife is from Japan and once a year we fly to Fukuoka to visit her family. And once a year her aunt takes us out for a nice meal. This year she took us to a place near her home.
We stepped into the entryway onto a dirt floor, the walls were made of traditional mud and straw. We were guided to a small private room over looking a simple Japanese garden, the door was slid shut behind us.
I am going to borrow from a friend of mine, Leilani Labong and her writing partner, Mikhael Romain’s blog First Ever. They often write about “What Ifs.” And I can’t help but wonder, what if I was an expert food critique and had all the words and knowledge to describe to you the best meal I ever had!
I have tasted many of these Japanese dishes before, and I liked them, but this meal was different.
In the first course, I ate the huge chestnut soaked in some sort of thick translucent savory sauce, I wanted to save it till the end of the meal. A habit I developed as a child to save the best for last. But I resisted the urge and was pleasantly surprised by each dish that followed was on par with the first. I don’t think this meal would be for every Westerner but it was a feast for me.
Each dish was a work of art to be savored by the eyes. The array of varying flavors from sweet to savory, nuanced with subtle flavors that surprised me with each bite. And the flavors were match by the exquisite variation in textures.
There was a bit of freshly ground wasabi that accompanied a portion of sashimi. When I finished the sashimi, to my great surprise, I tasted and consumed the wasabi all by itself. I took this act as a testament to the quality and rich flavors of every item I was served.
I only wish that my words could give justice to why this meal was so utterly delicious. And I wish I could remember what each dish was composed of. Never have I eaten a meal so slowly and so conscious of every bite. It was sublime.
This was a meal I ate in Fukuoka, Japan at the Warabi Village Restaurant.
The other day neither my wife nor I wanted to cook so she pulled out a couple of frozen chicken burritos from Trader Joe’s. I said to her that Trader Joe’s is one of my favorite grocery stores, but I am not crazy about their chicken burritos. Their tamales are a different story. Yum!
I said I can make a better burrito than than, taking a cue from Bobby Flay’s TV show, Throw Down with Bobby Flay.
I have never made a burrito in my life, let alone a tortilla, so I went to the internet and found a simple recipe for flour tortillas: 3 tpbs. shortening, 1 tsp. salt, 2 cups flour, and 3/4 cups water (a little too much water I think).
Simple! Well, it ended up being a more work than I thought but by the third tortilla I had it down!
My wife was the judge. To her surprise she liked my burrito best and ate the whole thing even though she said she only wanted a single bite.
My buritto wasn’t infinatley better than Trader Joe’s. I think edged it out on freshness. Had I baked their’s for 40 minutes instead of microwaving it for two, I probably would have lost this contest.
The best thing to come out of it (other than having fun) is now I know how to make tortillas. If I am home and want a sandwich but all the bread has gone to mold, I can always make my own fresh.
This past weekend I visited my parents. They love traveling and are quite often on a road trip somewhere in the U.S.
This weekend my wife and I drove up to Vermont to spend time with them as they passed close by New York.
Grand Pa wasn’t with them this time. My mother and father took care of him (her father) for 14 years after he began getting up in age. I grew closer to him during my time visiting my parents a couple times a year as an adult than when I was a youngster living at home.
He passed last year in the back seat of the mini-van somewhere in Atlanta, very much reminiscent of the movie Little Miss Sunshine. My mother said he seemed quite well when he spoke his last words telling her what a great time he was having on the trip. Then he closed his eyes and quietly faded away.
While visiting my parents on their latest adventure the room seemed just a little bit empty without Papa.
Remembering my grandfather brought to mind a video that I saw more than a year ago that was done by a fellow University of Miami MFA classmate.
I was touched by Kit’s seemingly simple yet heartfelt video.
pistachio pudding fruit salad recipe from Kit on Vimeo.
While out on a run on the Old Croton Aqueduct trail, I stumbled upon a Farmers’ Market in my neighborhood. I was very surprised to see all the produce, cooked food, baked goods, preserves, fresh fish and even crafts in the middle school parking lot.
Since I worked for newspapers most of my adult life I have usually worked when most people are at leisure. While strolling through, I ran into a reporter who lives in the neighborhood and she touted that the lasagna was worth coming back for. Neil, my mechanic who’s shop is around the corner taps me on the shoulder to say hello.
I made my way home and came back with my wife. The lasagna was sold out so we had the chicken masala from the local Indian restaurant. We sat at a picnic table and enjoyed the evening breeze, watched children play and listen to the singer sing and strum his guitar. It brought to mind an old Micheal J. Fox movie, Doc Hollywood.
This place felt small town today. I felt a connection. It felt good.
Irvington Farmers' Market
Last week I purchased cupcakes for the sole purpose of doing a small painting reminiscent of Wayne Thiebaud’s wonderfully delicious works.
I brought home several cupcakes that never made it to my studio because they looked so “darn delicious.”
The taste of the cupcakes seemed to awaken an insatiable lust for rich buttery frosting. And thus my wife dragged me across Manhattan, and Westchester County as well, in search of the cutest and most tasty cakes.
We still have many more shops as of yet to discover, but I finally found time to do a few studies while the taste of the spongy cakes are still fresh in my mind.
Cupcake Trio
After perusing blogs “Design*Sponge” and “Small Bites,” I felt inspired to do a Wayne Thiebaud style painting of cupcakes, or perhaps it was simply a desire for sweets.
I ran out to a local cupcake shop for three cakes. It was my first time in a cupcake shop and I would expect if a shop’s claim to fame is cupcakes that the cakes would be “special” in appearance and taste. These were good but not extraordinary.
Since I am still in the process of organizing my painting studio the cupcakes sit-in-wait.
Meanwhile, my wife returns and is delighted to find that I bought “her” cupcakes. She suggests that I photograph them for my painting rather than paint from life so we can eat them.
After several hours of nudging I succumb and take pictures of the cakes and we eat.
Cupcake