Food Works – Rice on Canvas

For about the past five months I have been painting with food. Yes food as the medium not the subject. Here is a little bit about my process.

The photograph below is rice on canvas with about 5 to 6 layers of clear gesso used to archive the rice as a painting material. Then I wrapped the edges with twine and thin wire. The green string is then interwoven with the twine and wire. This represents the first time I made a rice painting I used about 2 cups of rice – enough for eight servings, if cooked.

Brown Rice, String, and Wire on Canvas

I grew up in Mexico and Brazil. I ate a lot of rice as a child. We went to outdoor markets to buy our food. Nothing was packaged. After the first rice painting I have continued to paint with food – rice, lentils, noodles – it is real food not as processed as so much food is these days.Except I am processing it aren't I?

Noodles, Canvas and String on Canvas

I go to the grocery store instead of the art store to purchase what I need. I will be asking the viewer to interact with what is real but it is not real anymore because it is archived on canvas with gesso, varnishes and bees wax – the food I use can never be cooked or eaten – in a way it is archived.

Yellow Peas and Wild Rice Well Organized in Clear Gesso on Panel

Museum Morsbroich has a show of Michael Schmidt’s photographed food – in production, processing, packaging and presentation (http://www.museum-morsbroich.de/). In my mind, a photograph removes the viewer from reality because it is a presentation of a moment in time captured on film.Yet he too is fascinated by food.

Michael Schmidt, “Untitled, # 22,” from: “Lebensmittel,” 2006–2010. Photography, 54,1 x 81,8 cm. © Michael Schmidt

Instead of using photography I have food either organized or in chaos on canvas with string and wire layered at times to “anchor” the piece or give the food structure – much like the fields it was grown in – and much like the societal structures we endure. 

Yellow Peas and Wild Rice in Encaustic on Panel

At first I hated myself for painting with rice. Like I was wasting food. yet I felt compelled to keep going and make more food paintings.  I don’t know how to explain the works.  I keep hoping the idea will come; about why am I painting with food. 

Picasso's famous statement: “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up,”  comes to mind when I look at my own food painting. Viewers have asked me if I teach children – I have. I taught Pre-K - 8th grade art for 15 years. I guess the food paintings I make has my viewers thinking about the elementary school food craft projects that children bring home. That's ok with me.

Pop Corn in Encaustic

There is not a simple answer for my works in food. Picasso says, “The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web. ” Maybe food can be added to his list. Painting in food allows me to see each grain as special and loaded with potential.

Mixed Lentils, String and Wire on Canvas

This piece makes me think of what crowds of people would look like if viewed from above in a single moment in time. Do food paintings strike you as useful or a waste?