The-F-Word.org

The Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center here in town is winding down its The Art of Food exhibit next month.  Brandon and I haven’t had a chance yet to attend, but I’m hoping to make it before its April 2 close date.  This is the fourth year for the exhibit, which showcases food as art, art about food, and food as the inspiration for art — and the works are as eclectic as the medium.  Artist Eric Bass, for instance, has recreated famous paintings with candy and junk food.  This year, he recreated Van Gogh’s “Potato Eater” using — what else? — potato chips.  Photographer Bruce Frank manipulates the colors and forms of food in works such as “Fruit salad mandala” (pictured), while other artists such as Pam Kravetz chose to make her 8-foot tall food-themed puppets and towers of cupcakes artwork about food and our relation to it.

As a photographer and digital artist myself, I’ve been drawn to golden fields of swaying wheat and corn, but never have I made food itself the subject of my art — unless, that is, you consider cake-decorating to be an art, in which case I am a total food artist.  The Art of Food exhibit pays homage to the days of early modern Europe, when orate edible creations and sculpture were often created for celebrations in cities and courts as both a feast for the eyes and a taste experience — read more on that here.  Now food art is enjoying a resurgence again among the creative class looking for new and unique ways to express their vision and creativity.  Just check out some of the amazing works featured here, here or here.   Among my favorites are the eye-catching “foodscapes” of photographer Carl Warner, who uses fruits, vegetables anything else he can scrounge up in his kitchen to make his fantastical landscapes made entire of food (well, and glue and pins).   Simply amazing!

Do you have a favorite food artist?  Have you made food art?  If so, show off some of your creations!