opportunity to an expanded network of artists and provide some financial compensation for the artists’ efforts. Tamarind will feature the prints created during the various Foodie residencies in an exhibition opening March 6, 2015, in their gallery. During its month-long run, the public will have the opportunity to record their perspectives on a stone as part of a community lithograph to be printed for a closing reception. Given its vast interpretive potential, artists addressed the food theme in ways both personal and best suited to their artistic practice. Drawing inspiration from edible grasses and seeds, Anne Cooper used a grid-like format, painstakingly drawing scores of tiny, individual grains of rice. For Andrea Sanchez, her image of squash and squash blossoms expressed her personal connection to food grown in New Mexico as well as her family's generational ties to the state. Marne Elmore, artist and recent graduate of University of New Mexico’s MFA program, also responded to the Public Art Program’s call for artists and was selected to participate. Originally from southern Idaho, Elmore was drawn to the localness of food production in Albuquerque. “I’m interested in the idea of animal husbandry and the roles that many local farmers take on as being a partner in sustaining not only the livestock they look after but in a sense, also our food industry,” Elmore said. A printmaker herself, she worked at Tamarind during her time at UNM. Foodie presented an opportunity for Elmore to get back into their workshop. She also used the project to connect her artmaking to research into Albuquerque’s agricultural community as a hyper-local network of sustainable food production. “With my print, I wanted to depict something that spoke to the idea of both living off the land and the production of food itself,” says Elmore. “That also meant showing the love of animal husbandry and conveying the sentimentality of farming as a labor of love,” she added.
Happy Hour: Daily 2-6pm, Bar Only 8pm-Close Hours: Tues.-Thurs. 11:30am-9pm Fri. & Sat. 11:30am-10:30pm
109 Gold Avenue Albuquerque, NM 87102 www.soulandvineabq.com 505-244-3344
Farmhouse Café and Bakery
Organic, Local, and Fresh
sourced from over 20 local farms and ranches 575-758-LOVE | farmhousecafeandbakery.com
For both Roybal and Elmore, their respective approaches to this project meant looking to, and critically examining the origin of food. The root of Elmore’s inspiration stemmed from her interest in pig farming and our often-complex relationship with meat. “I think of a career in the meat industry as a hard but admirable line of work. People eat meat all the time but when I really think about all that goes into it, I’m just in awe.” Elmore said. As a beekeeper, Roybal constantly observes bees at work and watches them fly from flower to flower, collecting pollen and feeding their young. Pointing to the trial proof of her lithograph now awaiting final printing, she notes, “It’s about the interworking of the bee as an abstraction and about how plants feed insects and how plants feed us. It’s a very natural, mechanical process.” She adds, “For me, it was all about using art to convey the magic of the bee, underscoring what an integral part they are to our food.” www.tamarind.unm.edu
WWW.EDIBLESANTAFE.COM
49