I am so honored to be a part of this:
'Beginning December 27, 2017, 50 all-women artist/chef-restaurateur teams met to join forces in an innovative partnership whereby chefs are inspiring the artists to produce new artworks, culminating in the exhibition. ]To honor the mission of Textile Center, each of the artists is incorporating a textile process, material, or sensibility in their completed work. Recognizing the abundance of local culinary and visual art talent of Twin Cities-area women, “this invitational exhibition forges a new partnership that celebrates the work of women artists in both the art studio and culinary worlds.”— Artists in the Kitchen Organizers.
I was partnered with Hanna Yemesrach Benti
who just opened a cafe on Hennepin Ave, and has been running Brava Food Truck for many years.
Spending some time with Hanna, I learned about her journey that took her to being a Chef and Restrurateur. She walked me through a typical day in the food truck business a world unto it's own, which was fascinating. Several
things really stood out for me, she loved cooking , loved her family, was passionate about making nutritious, healthy, colorful food for people.
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I got to enjoy her cooking, the Red Curry was my favorite! |
After meeting with Hanna I spend several weeks thinking , remembering, listening to the recording of our interview. I thought about how to could use this information to make a piece of art work. My process is usually intuitive, I start with something and let the piece take me where it wants to go, so it was a strain to come up with a imagine first. I started several, very intellectual ideas of what I thought would be a summary of our interview. All the while this image of Hanna with her head tilled slightly to the right lingered in my mind. Finally I drew it out, cut it out from the fabric I had rusted and continued with my intuitive process. Once I let go of the contrived ideas it flowed....I guess that is just the way I roll.
I used old rust kitchen tools for the rusted fabric, including a heat diffuser for the stove, a trivet, fish scaler, and a baking tin.