a matter of convenience

I've been hinting for a few posts now at a new show in September, co-curated with Rose Clancy and showing at Future Tenant downtown. It's called A Matter of Convenience, and it focuses specifically on notions of convenience, ease, and the cost of decisions we make about how and where we get our food. Rose Clancy, myself, artist Anna Mikolay, and Landscape Architect and soil expert Suzy Meyer will all be exhibiting work.

Here's a summary of what I've been doing:

beneficial birds linocuts

These linocuts represent backyard birds that have a beneficial role in the garden through natural pest control, which directly relates to Rose's themes of sustainable gardening that she'll be working with. They will be printed on nice paper, like one would for an edition, but I'll also be translating them into silkscreen prints. Those will be printed onto handmade paper that's been impregnated with wildflower seeds. People will be able to buy the prints for a very affordable cost, hang onto them for the winter, and then plant the paper in the spring.

csa documentation

One of the ways we're looking at the idea of convenience is by exploring local sources of produce, such as farmers markets and Community Supported Agriculture (aka farmshares). I'm documenting my farmshare pickup each week on flickr - you can see the rest of the photos here - to give people an idea of what that crate actually looks like each week.

the cookbook

I'm also writing a cookbook, titled A Time to Eat: a solution to the overabundance of seasonal produce. It has recipes that I've invented myself, as well as some passed down through my family and from my friends' families. Now that I have all those veggies, I want to show people what people actually cook with all that green stuff. Long story short, you do have to make a commitment to cooking often, and you have to like vegetables! But I think spending a little time and practice on it is easier than people think - like that phrase people use, cook smarter, not harder. This cookbook is designed to help people do that through simple, delicious recipes.

I'm also working on an installation of paper birds and animals about food webs - yes, the diagram you probably saw in your elementary school science textbook. Mine will be cool, I promise. Stay tuned for more updates to our show.