My Morning Chocolate

This is the last post in Kenny‘s Blogathon Food and Art series.  I want to say a big, big thank you to Kenny for taking over Sunday posts this month, and for showing us the connection between food and art.  Take a look at his other great posts:  Would You Like Some Art with Your Food?, Food and Art Trivia!, Use Your Coffee to Make Some Art, and Introduction to Food and Art.

Many years ago I saw this graphic and architectural design book titled I Am Almost Always Hungry and the appellation stuck with me. At the time I was working as a graphic artist, and this book married two subjects I hold dearly, eating and visual art. I always thought that I would use that phrase one day, either as a name for a painting or a title for a specific exhibition. The truth is, I am always hungry.

Images from The Dallas Morning News (scallops including a recipe!) and Seattle Blogs (pad thai).

I thought it would be appropriate to mention this love for food and art, especially in this last Sunday post of my guest-blogging. A perfect evening would be to attend an art opening, enjoying the energy and excitement that fills a gallery during an opening reception, followed by a delicious meal – complete with appetizer, entrée, and coffee with dessert.

Food and Art leave such lasting memories with me, instantly bringing me back to certain experiences in my life. For instance, scallops remind me of a dish I had in Vermont on the night I proposed to my wife:  perfectly seared jumbo scallops with wild mushrooms in Vermont cream over homemade fettuccini.

Pad Thai will always bring me back to a street in Thailand, where I was eating some out of a styrofoam container with splintered sticks, sitting in a gutter without shoes, bruised and dirty while dried-up bloodied toilet paper hung from my hand from the serious motor-scooter accident I had earlier in the day.  (My brother wishes he had a picture of that moment to send back home, knowing it would’ve freaked out our mom).

Equal to my enjoyment of reminiscing about food memories is recalling my experiences of viewing certain artworks. I will never forget the first time I saw Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night in person at the MOMA in New York, a painting that was one of the first influential works of art for me as a young artist.

More recently, I was extremely fortunate to randomly enter the gallery Sikkema Jenkins & Co. in Chelsea, where to my surprise, one of my favorite artists, Amy Sillman, was having a solo show. Needless to say, her paintings in person were so breath-taking and inspiring!

So when I think about where I like to go – out to eat and to art galleries – or what I like to do – cook and spend time in the studio painting – I think back to the book I Am Always Hungry.  Whether it’s a hunger for food or a hunger to further my art career, it is rare that my mind is not thinking about one of those two topics. Thank you for reading.

I want to thank Jen for allowing me to monopolize her Sundays throughout her blogathon! Job well done to her for writing My Morning Chocolate and always providing interesting facts, recipes, books, and tips on everything about food.