Misfits, next figure, bridging cooking and art

Very glad I switched back to Friday delivery. The box arrived about midday, so all the prep was done before 2. It takes a while, but it's only once every two weeks. And I have plenty of raw material for making vegetable stock.

The quality is good, as usual, the romaine lettuce really crisp.  That will be supper, with one of those tomatoes and carrot pennies, maybe in a pita bread. The apples and lettuce are now being shipped in resealable, reusable  bags, I'm happy to say.

And the lemon curd is just a treat for moi. I've made it before but doing it right is endlessly time and labor intensive. So I thought I'd delegate it to good old Chivers. The olives are a little extra, too.

The dates will go into date nut bars at some point.

And yesterday I used the Granny Smith apples to make apple turnovers, one of which I had for breakfast. What? It's apples, it's breakfast food..

While I was at it, I macerated the fruit, and reduced the juice and molasses, then added it back, and the result was deffo worth it.

It reminded me how art and cooking have so much in common. They need harmony in materials, balance, composition, fearlessness, willingness to go wrong, realizing when one idea can just as well work somewhere else, and playfulness. Good art and good food are serious but not solemn. And you don't keep thinking about these lofty issues while you work. You just plunge in. Stepping off soapbox now,  to test a turnover.

They look pretty artisanal, also sticky, but who's counting. Two in the freezer for a future dessert with handsome Son. The rest are in harm's way!

Decks are cleared

And I've moved on to the next figure, which will probably be close to lifesize, unless I decide it's really a bust, we'll see.. 

The face here is mounted on embroidery stretcher bars, the soft wood kind.  Image is 8.5×11. Three layers of fabric, two layers of images printed on transparent silk, one a photograph of Sophocles, one a photograph of my front yard daisies. 

There are references here I can talk about later. If anyone's interested, that's to say. I really like the snooty expression on his face. I'M ATHENIAN, who are you?

The idea is that the stitching will create a low relief sculpture, then the face will be appliqued onto a head. I love this kind of shaping. 

Even to the point of finding in the art closet, late last night, the right stretcher bars and push pins designed for the job, which won't damage the fabric. They come with a special little tool to remove them, too.

I'll make a fabric draft for a full length figure, to keep the idea warm. And I'm wondering  if I'll co-opt part of the green sari, there's plenty, for this figure, either to dress it or to be the actual figure. TBD. I woke up in the night thinking about this. Probably because I can see the sari from my bed.

So all this activity and I'm still a bit wobbly for driving, knocked a couple of other plans off the calendar. It's all good.