Sunday, August 23, 2009

Vine-ripe tomatoes

Acrylic on gessoed hardboard, 11 x 15''
#83, 2004, Private collection

I am currently working on painting #10 for my fall solo show. In the meanwhile, I am posting a painting that was completed in the late fall of 2004. The image was inspired by the tomatoes themselves. It was about the time that I first notice that you could buy tomatoes that were not detached from one another but still on the vine as a grouping.

My mother-in-law was visiting us for a week. While we were at work, she had washed the dishes and did not know where we stored the 2-liter Pyrex measuring cup, so she left it on the counter, right next to the tomatoes.....and the conceptual idea was born. I added the knife as an element of transformation and to create tension. As Mary Pratt once said, ''What is art without tension''.