Portrait Of A Chef/ Hanna Benti

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.

Artists in the Kitchen premieres in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of Women Chefs & Restaurateurs (WCR) national conference, Women Speak: Curating the Future of Food from April 21-23."

 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.

 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.