What's Cooking In the Studio?

Along with the Featured Painting from the last post, I completed Sinkside Compost #7. As I mentioned, the style of this and #8 are looser than the previous ones. Part of the looseness in this one is the smaller panel size while still using the same size brushes. There was a lot of white food scraps in this composition with old lettuce leaves, egg shells and pale broccoli. Then there is a nice brown banana peel in there for contrast.

Last month I showed the sketches of two potential watercolors for a commission. The trillium flower was chosen. Here is an image of the partially completed piece. It's about 95% complete. At this point I slow down in my painting. I will spend about an hour on it at a stretch and then let it sit for a few hours or a day. I slow myself down at the end of a botanical painting because I have learned that going too far is too easy. So I approach it cautiously, identifying only two or three places to improve at each sitting. Then critiquing it and determining the next two or three places for improvement the next time.

What next, after the Sinkside Compost Series? I've been starting to think about a new direction my food paintings. Here is a sketch painting for a series of work that will look more at the psychological relationship we have with food. I am pairing up lines from love songs and songs about relationships with food that I am addicted to. I have been working hard at losing weight -- I have lost almost twenty pounds since the end of January. While restricting myself I have observed cravings and addictions to sugary foods and some other tempting treats. As a child of the 70's and 80's, I was indoctrinated to certain relational expectations via popular music. I find that both of these desires, for food and love, are similar and similarly warped by our culture. I will be talking about this in the next series. It should be interesting.

Sinkside Compost #8, oil paint on panel, 12" x 16"

Sinkside Compost #8

Oil Paint on Panel

12" x 16"

$300

I continue to make paintings of my sinkside compost container. My initial plan was to make a series of ten panels. I have completed eight and designs for the last two are chosen. This particular painting is heavy on the oranges and yellows because of the sweet potato peelings and a rotting orange. The style of my last two sinkside compost paintings is a little looser and more defined by outlines (see #7 below). I don't paint with orange very often and had fun with the variations of orange and yellow. I particularly like the plastic container in this one. It is an old baby spinach container with a peel strip that you can see at the bottom edge. The reflections turned out to be quite effective.

Art Exhibit at Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts

I am in a small group show at Banfill-Locke Art Center in Fridley, MN beginning September 2, 2017.

The exhibit, titled texture/imperfection/life – works by Marjorie Fedyszyn, Mark Granlund, Ellie Kingsbury will run from September 2 – 30, 2017 with the reception on Saturday, September 16 from 4 - 6pm.

All of the completed Sinkside Compost paintings will be on exhibited. It will be fun to see them all in one place, other than my studio. I will also have other food paintings on exhibit. It would be nice to see you there!

Studio Renovation Update

I took a little time off from renovating the new studio to have some fun in Chicago. But now I'm back framing in closets and bathrooms and windows.

Here is the basement.  It is one of the only shots you will see of it because it is not much to look at. I find it funny that this small house had a 50 gallon water heater.

The closet and the bathroom are now two separate spaces. Closet on the right, bathroom on the left.

This is a hole in the wall for a new window. It is covered by a shower curtain to keep the rain out. 

Now it is not covered.

Now it has a new window in it.

I purchased three matching windows at Building Materials Outlet in Eagan, MN. Got a great deal on them! I'm a little behind schedule but am hoping to have it ready for a workshop or class before the holiday.  There will definitely be an open house in November. 

I am looking forward to having a warm, welcoming and dedicated space for teaching art classes.

Abracadabra and Its Gone!

I've been working hard removing materials from the new studio. It has been a lot of work, but I break it up into manageable parts.  When I work in the studio I bring a timer. I only allow myself 45 minutes to work each weekday, 2 hours on Saturdays and Sundays.  And I don't work there every day. I pace myself to make sure that the entire project doesn't consume my life and to make sure I don't hurt myself.  I am getting older and can't haul and demo like I used to.  So I limit myself. If my knee, or any other body part, is feeling funny I don't work. No point in building a studio to teach in if I'm hobbling around while teaching.

The only incident so far was twisting my knee in a hole in the yard. The yard was full of ruts and divets when I purchased it. I filled in most of them early on, but there was one I missed and it was full of leaves, so I didn't notice it.  I was a bit concerned at first when I stepped in it because I have a friend who had just had knee surgery. But I rested my knee and it hasn't bothered me for more than a month.

Here are the latest pictures:

Here, half of the flooring has been removed (closest to us). Why am I removing the flooring, you might ask? The floor had been cut up with several trap doors and temporary covers.  One large opening is to a stairway that goes to the basement (not in the picture, to the right). The other was the former chimney hole (seen in the photo). And I found another in the living room near the bathtub. The interior walls had also been installed at subfloor level and when I removed those there were gaps in the flooring where the walls had been.To patch all these holes would have been difficult and look shoddy.

Here is an image with all the flooring missing. You can now see the trap door by the tub along the far wall. Another reason to replace the flooring is that I will be installing in-floor heating. For that to happen, I need a good smooth surface.  The existing flooring was not adequate.

No need for a tub in an art studio - so it has to go. This was the hardest work so far. The tile walls were very stubborn and a sledgehammer was used repeatedly with traumatic force. Eventually, they succumbed. Originally, I was thinking of putting in a shower stall to replace the tub, but now I am going to put a closet there, instead. 

This image shows the tub completely gone, along with the bathroom door gone and some of the walls missing. The finished bathroom will consist of a toilet and a sink. I am trying to keep most of the existing tile work and will then match the tiles for the rest of the bathroom walls. We'll see how that goes.

I am happy because I have hit rock bottom when it comes to demoing the house. At this point I start to build up the different parts of the studio. It is definitely a corner turned when, at the end of the day, the studio is actually looking better and closer to finished instead of more of a mess. More to come...

On and On...

I have been working on the new studio for the last couple of weeks. Here are some more photos:

I have been cutting down a lot of weed trees and buckthorn that has been growing along the fence line and around the house. This is less than half the original pile. It took four trips to the compost site... and there is still more to cut down. 

The inside is messy, but coming along. 

This is where the bathroom sink used to be. After doing renovations and repairs on four houses, I've gotten pretty good with a hammer and pry bar. 

 This used to be the kitchen. Well, it never was much of a kitchen, just a sink a a couple of cabinets.

And the end result, all of the debris fitting neatly in a 10 yard dumpster. 

Now to removing the tub and pulling up the flooring.

The Controversy at My Latest Exhibit

THE EXHIBIT:
I know that people are very passionate about their food. Food is a very personal aspect of what we say about ourselves. That is why I paint about food. Edibility, my current exhibit at Reverie Cafe and Bar is a collection of paintings that talk about what we eat and why it is considered food or not food. This can be a simple pun on the word "nuts" to a more complex relationship between cooked food, uncooked food, objects we ingest that are not considered food, and objects that obviously are not food but relate to the food in the painting in some fashion. I figured a restaurant with a vegan menu is a great place to discuss the qualities of food and what we eat.

THE CONTROVERSY:
One of the paintings is of a couple of rainbow trout on a plate, titled Rainbow Trout

Rainbow Trout

Other paintings, like the one below, include eggshells.

Sinkside Compost #3

One patron complained about the paintings in this manner: "I find some of the art offensive as a vegan, I do not want to eat somewhere that has pictures of fish on a plate, or egg shells, or any dead animal flesh, no matter what the reason, it's unpleasant to look at while eating, especially at a vegan restaurant. I will not be in until the art is taken down." 

Another had this complaint: "Thank you for taking down the fish, but many of your vegan supporters will likely not visit Reverie until the artwork is vegan (no eggshells)."

Another patron had this comment: "The important message is that animals should not be considered food in order to sustain life since that's in fact taking life away, which this artwork does not seem to convey."

THE RESPONSE:
I went out of town on vacation for ten days the day after hanging the show and was not immediately aware of the situation.  One of the owners removed the trout painting while defending the overall statement I am making with my art.  I appreciate that gesture, especially without being able to consult with me.

You Are Smart About These Things
Most people who visit Reverie Cafe and Bar are not vegans. I'm sure all the staff and ownership are not vegan. Some patrons don't care about the sourcing of the food and the work done to make sure the menu is vegan. Some just like the location and the taste and the music. But, the owners are passionate about food and have chosen to express that through this restaurant. They do a good job of it. They are also good business people who know a profitable niche when they see one. They also are not judgemental toward any patron because of their chosen diet. Vegans, like the owners and myself, are also passionate about food and its impact on the environment. They understand the negative impact of food choices and work hard to align their practice with their beliefs. If you are a vegan, congratulations, you are not consuming food blindly or willing to kill animals in order to survive.

We Are Merchants of Death
Yes, we do take away an animal's life when we eat it.  We also take away a plant's life when we eat it. When we die, and sometimes before, microscopic animals (or larger) eat us. There is life everywhere. There is death everywhere.  Simply because someone is a vegan, that does not mean they inflict less death - you just eat fewer mammals, birds and fish. If you want to suggest that plants are not as sentient as animals, I would protest that plants are sentient - we simply do not understand plant life as well as we do animal life. More studies are coming out about the sentient nature of plants. Sometimes vegans use their chosen lifestyle to deny the amount of death they are creating. I get that. I don't want to acknowledge the amount of death I create. Every time I drive my car I am adding to the global hell-hole that we are creating.  Every time I pull a weed, kill a weed tree in my yard, or trap a mouse in my house I am denying the power that is Life.  Every time I create or use anything - the mere act of translating raw materials into useful objects - is killing something. We are all merchants of death, even vegans. We cannot run from the death we create.


The Arctic Apple
Is the lack of animal products the only concern of vegans?  The painting Arctic Apple is hanging along the roadside wall of the restaurant. The Arctic Apple is the first FDA approved GMO apple for sale.  I find that painting more insidious and revolting than Rainbow Trout. The insidious part is that we cannot tell, visually, the difference between a GMO apple or a non-GMO apple. People are consuming these apples without knowing they are GMO.  These apples do not brown, so they are often used in situations where sliced apples have to be on display for extended periods of time. More research is coming out about the negative effects of GMO food. But again, you can't tell its a painting of a GMO food product by how it looks, so it doesn't receive complaints. 

Should Art About the Hard Issues of Food be on Display at a Vegan Restaurant?
That ultimately is the question.  Many of these works will be on display at Banfill-Locke Art Center in September where no one will complain about the rainbow trout or the egg shells. Although I hope many do, I doubt most people who visit Reverie dwell on the art work and its deeper meaning. In fact, the people who did complain about the paintings didn't bother to read the Artist's Statement that is posted on the same wall as the offensive pieces. They went to my website to find my statement about this body of work (thanks for visiting my website - I hope you looked at my botanical and landscape paintings and read the illustrated short stories in The Book of Bartholomew many of which are about a young man and his friends trying to figure out their own relationship with food). 

I do not look at food from the lens of a vegan.  If that is the only lens through which you wish to view art at a vegan restaurant, then I am not your artist. Although, I can safely say that many of the egg shells are from free-range and organic chickens raised by a co-worker in her yard.  I do not support or condone the mistreatment of animals and feel that the taking of a life in order for my survival should be acknowledged and not taken for granted - that goes for animals as well as plants. Although I come from a different perspective than a vegan, I am not unaware or precocious about the issues around food. I certainly am not an artist looking for controversy. Compared to the recent Walker dust-up, this ranks about a .001 on a scale of 10.  But I do have a valid and timely message about food to share. If you, as a viewer, are not able to see deeper into the work beyond your veganism, there is little I can do about it. If you are not able to appreciate the pieces that you do not find offensive, again, there is little I can do about it.  Although, I would hope that you are a grounded enough of a person to consider the entire body of work presented instead of being blinded by just a piece or two. In the end, I have a sensibility to share. I do not expect each viewer to share or even appreciate the sensibility that I am sharing. I hope that there are many who do and am happy to engage in discussion with them through my words and my art. I will be at Reverie Cafe and Bar on June 22 from 5pm - 8pm and again on July 25 if people would like to talk about the art and the issues it raises. 

After consulting with me, as a business decision, Reverie has determined to take down the offending pieces. I am fine with that. They are not an art gallery but a restaurant, they must do what they feel is best for their business.

I have learned much through these complaints and value this situation. Should this art be hanging in a vegan restaurant? I say yes. Others say no.  If I had walked out of every coffee shop that hung art that offended me I would be independently wealthy instead of ten pounds overweight.  Reverie Cafe and Bar is a good restaurant with a good staff and I think people should keep supporting it, no matter their thoughts on the art. But, that is for others to decide for themselves.