As mentioned earlier, there are various themes emerging within the artworks. Underlying recurring events which crop up from picture to picture. Keeping in mind these were all done separately with no contact between the contributors, these three contributors all created artworks which focused squarely around food. I got in touch with Contributor 15, 323 and 107 to ask why, among other things.
Lydia (Contributor 15) is a cartographer from the Netherlands. “Yes,” she assures me, “that small country between England and Germany, famous for its tulips and cheese” as if I could confuse it for that other Netherlands. Cartography is the study, creation and upkeep of maps “Nowadays, these maps are all stored and edited on the computer. For those interested, we use the CAD sofware Microstation.” Outside of that, Lydia’s interests range from the flute, to scrapbooking, to writing, to encaustic art.
For her artwork, Lydia says, “I quickly decided I wanted to submit a photograph, and thought out some ideas. Normally I take pictures of flowers and sunsets, and this was just wacky from my point of view.” Coming up with the idea of a sandwich was not a snap decision, but evolved naturally. “One idea would need some props that were not at my disposal at the moment, and as I was quite eager to submit my entry, I decided to go for something ‘different’. I also wanted it to look familiar, like something that the viewer could reach out to and grab. And, as mentioned, everything I needed was ready at home.”
In case you’re wondering about the technical specifications of the artwork: “What you see are two slices of bread, with a thick layer of strawberry jam, topped by slices of cheese.” Being an early contributor, Lydia claims that is a bonus as the piece wouldn’t have worked as well if there were more numbers involved.
Anthony Box (Contributor 323) is from Yamba in Australia - not to be confused with that other Yamba - and when not thinking of new ventures, his craft as a Chef involves foods-stuff production, research, creation and service. “I was inspireded from a very early age with a love for eating and was fortunate to be around some great home cooks.”
Being indecisive by nature, Anthony neglects any hobbies he may have, but still finds time for “the obscure and what if’s of products and situations.” Much like his artwork, which came from a weekly tradition, “My partner has made Friday ‘pizza-night’ and as dinner was being compiled the sundried tomatoes where shaped to the number 323.” As for the rest of the pizza, it was composed of “Salami, Red onion, mozzerella cheese, roma tomato, sundried tomato, Avocado and ham. The base was unlevened bread pasted with tomato and basil pesto.”
Samantha Sidman (Contributor 107) is both a parent and a teacher from Simi Valley, California (the California in America) and says she became a teacher in grade four. “I have wanted to teach since my 4th grade teacher wrote a comment on my report card that said “If I ever need a substitute, I’m hiring Sam!”" Becoming disillusioned with ‘corporate America,’ Samantha “decided to take the leap (and subsequent cut in pay)” to teach. She is now in charge of math and science for sixth grade class.
Samantha’s inspiration came from both her interest in photography and her own child, “I was watching Old School Sesame Street with my 2 year old when they had a segment on counting. Bits of food and other objects came together to form numbers. I can’t waste food, so I figured dried pasta would be an okay thing to model and then cook!” and it was made from “Kraft Mac n Cheese.”
The important thing, though, is not how delicious a piece of art looks, but how delicious it is. And as a firm believer in artwork which should serve a purpose, I couldn’t let these artists go without finding out the fate of their pieces. The “Kraft Mac n Cheese” was, as Samantha puts it, “Fine. It’s kinda hard to screw it up.” Anthony described the pizza as “very delicious” and Lydia’s sandwich was just “okay” as it seemed to suffer from “a bit too much jam.” Such is life.