Studio Blog

Taproots, Shoots and Fruits of Labor: the workshop, the mural

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Food is often a topic of interest, trade, obsession and festivity at Creativity Explored (as it is around the globe). The daily visit of the “food truck” at break time is always a much-anticipated event, inspiring all manners of deal-making and negotiating. Observing this, and being something of a foodist myself, I set out to conduct a twelve-week workshop at Creativity Explored, to draw from this all-important, and most common, aspect of our lives – as well as from the many cultural backgrounds of Creativity Explored artists. Then I found out about a mural that was started a decade ago - a collaboration between CE and Rainbow Grocery, and the current project was immediately given a forum. Fifteen CE studio artists created new 2’ x 2’ panels, depicting the many aspects of farming and marketing (even transporting) fruits and vegetables for our consumption and enjoyment. Some of the panels are whimsical (a cherry ferris wheel), meticulous (hundreds of individually sculpted 3-D fruits and vegetables placed in a market-like display), or cultural (an islander climbing a tree to pick bananas). All of them are vibrant, unique and colorful, creating a mural that celebrates and pays homage to the many processes and people that bring us vegetal foods. The mural is titled “Taproots, Shoots, and Fruits of Labor”, and now hangs above the produce section at Rainbow Grocery. Stop by and see our latest public installation!

# Posted by Kelley on April 29, 2008