Why Tomato People?


Yesterday my sister came over, picked up the tomato boy painting I'm working on, and said, "Why tomato people?" I didn't have a good answer for her at the time. I couldn't condense it down to 2 sentences. She did look a little concerned. But it's not as if I'm roving the grocery stores with a Sharpie marker in hand drawing faces on them. I save that for the potatoes. ;-)

The real answer is that I've been studying old folk paintings. I wanted to copy some old folk paintings so that I could learn, but I wanted it to not be "serious" - I wanted it to be fun. I'm more likely to take chances on a painting if there's a tomato for a head. So it gives me permission to experiment. At the same time I happened to see a pair of vintage tomato dolls sell on Ebay. I'm trying to get to the essence of what those old portraits felt like, but with some whimsey. There may be some deeper reasons that I haven't plumbed, but that's what I'm aware of for now. :-)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love your tamatoe people!!! Mica

MaryAnn said...

It is nice to see you picked an heirloom variety :) as a model!

Chickadee Primitives said...

I love your tomato portraits, Dix! They are wonderful and unique..!!!


"Do not let what you cannot do
keep you from doing what you can do."

John Wooden