In his book, Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods, Sandor Ellix Katz, makes a case for thinking of fermented food as a form of resistance.
Resistance to consumerism and at the same time an opportunity to take back the power of what we put in our bodies.
I couldn't resist sharing this thought from this visionary food enthusiast since it sums up my ideas about food in a nutshell.
As an illustrator, I love to find ways to interpret that vibrant vision of food into visual art.
Fermented Radish -Kitchen Watercolor Art PrintNumber 6: Fermented Radish
And so, we wrap up this week's Pantry, Fridge and Memory sub-theme around food with this latest illustration. Between research, ideation, material and final rendering, the entire creative process took seven active hours to complete over two days. It went especially fast because I chose to continue the existing, gouache-based, "Everyday Life series", with image #6.
I've Got The Power!
This image aims to depict ideas around heroism and satisfaction. Heroism because mastering the lost art of extending a kitchen garden season's harvest through fermented foods, that last through the winter, has to count for something big. Satisfaction, well, because lining up all these jars up on an open shelf looks pretty darn good.
A Perverse Exercise
Since I stomach radishes only whey they are pickled, I thought this would be a perverse image to render considering my lukewarm disposition toward the innocent vegetable. I don't think I've ever grown the silly-looking things in my own garden though. As you can tell, I started out with some prejudice. However, as you can see, "the power of the gouache" can vanquish almost any obstacle -especially imaginary ones. At 9" x 6", I kept it small - in case the experiment turned on me. You decide. How inviting is this yummy jar of pickled radishes, really?
- For some more food-related art, also check out the "Everyday Life series" offerings:
- Apples & Pears (pending)
- Coffee Cup and Cupcakes (pending)
- Or Eggs and Coffee (pending)
- Deep dive into The Portfolio Pages.
- Have a question about an illustration, a design or an art project? Contact me here.
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Public Announcement: This blog post is part of a collection of 354+ posts from my original Wordpress blog "Dreaming Into Being" library. I've now retired and migrated it to “Wander & Paint,” my new blog posts at the United Wanderlust art shop. As time allows, I will be reviewing, editing, condensing, updating and releasing a number of these blog posts but not all of them.
Some posts require more precision surgery than others. I'll also probably be publishing new posts as the muse wills it and father time allows. This whole process may take a while but I think these blog post serve as great documentation of my process and reminds me of certain milestones. So, most of them will be made available again- at some point.
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