Incanto 2012 Collage, acrylic, found objects and watercolor on paper.
Jay and I have eaten at Incanto nearly every Friday night for the past five or six years. If that doesn't make sense, I can explain: "The menu constantly changes, not just the specials board, but the whole menu."
A quote from Steve Jobs on a lobby wall at Apple headquarters applies to the restaurant:
If you think you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what's next.
Incanto enchants and inspires us. Not only do we keep coming back but we also keep trying new restaurants and recipes. If the staff recommends a place it goes on our list to check out. When an Incanto dish, sauce or other component strikes a chord in us we figure out if we can make it at home. We have eaten foods we were sure we didn't like and loved them.
This piece is about the food but it's also about the drive and the personality involved. Chef Chris Cosentino makes me believe that if you work at something you are passionate about, even though its hard, it will turn out right. He once said "You have to think about why you're doing what you're doing. Sometimes its because you love it, sometimes its an ends to means. You have to never lose sight of what you're trying to accomplish." We begin cooking with fire.
This is a pivotal piece. It is one of the first in my Paperscape -style with a story instead of being a simple abstract exploration. In order to create with intention I had to put more planning into the work. As my assistant points out the right margin of the work surface is covered with notes, sketches and mockups in order to preserve the focus of the piece and guide it. This is a new way of working for me. I am undecided about keeping the margin or cropping it out.
The painting begins at the Primal Dinner on November 7, 2009. The event and the location are only ingredients. The catalyst is fire: meaning, excitement, passion.
I am taking a picture behind the line with the sunset reflected in the background when someone asks me what I see. I point it out for them: the colors on the mountain, the trees, the smoke, the action, the food, everything. In this blury captured moment I can see beauty in the middle of chaos. I am struck that I can still see beauty and taste amazing food with all of the tragedy wrapped up in our friend's fight with cancer, the stress of work, the recession, political climate, etc.
Chris is in the center of the photo on the left, right in the heart of the fire. I view orange as a color for change. It is on the other side of the color wheel from blue. Blue is about tranquility and reflection. Other meanings associated with orange are health and vitality, creativity and appetite and a number of generally positive attributes. I think this piece needs a bright orange frame.
Jay and I have a joint realization at the end of the weekend that we need to work on letting other people take care of us for a change. I go home and lay down a lot of paint, paper and graphite on this piece, then I don't touch it for weeks at a time. It is very stop-and-start. There are dozens of other things going on. Every end is a beginning. We have funerals and parties. We move house. People get married, babies are born. We continue going to Incanto on a weekly basis. I change careers. We switch from table 51 to the end of the bar. Chris puts out a cookbook aptly called "Beginnings." The painting is finished two and a half years later. It is done. Now to figure out what's next.
 Color by COLOURlovers |
 Cases & Prints |
 
|
