i like vegetables just the way they are

My daughter belongs to an amazing garden club. Candace Cosler, who runs the program, asked me to work with the kids to create a piece of art that could be hung at a recent Farm to Cafeteria conference that was held on the Olympic Peninsula in November. She wanted something that directly reflected the kids’ feelings about eating fresh food. The idea being that no grown up could move other grown ups half as well as a kid simply asking for fresh, healthy meals.

So day one: In small groups the kids and I talked about eating fresh food. How did it make them feel? Did they care? Do they like it? Do they know where their food comes from? etc… They did care, and for the most part they did know.

Day two: From brown paper grocery bags I cut 100 silhouettes of beets, onions, potatoes, grapes, carrots, strawberries, radishes, and apples. The kids painted these however they saw fit and then I strung them together into a vine of wire and twine.

To the vine I added about 25 additional silhouettes printed with direct quotes from the kids, gathered during our discussions the previous day.