George Shenk, Warren, has spent decades asking what food means. In a new arts exhibit, the farmer, baker and longtime food writer has turned that question into art with work that explores the connections among what people eat, how they grow it and the land, animals and communities that sustain them.
Shenk, the founder of American Flatbread at Lareau Farm in Waitsfield, is showing work based on questions he has long explored: What is food, where does it come from, and how does it connect people to land, animals and each another? His work is paired with Montpelier artist Joan Brace O’Neal’s graphite drawings of dairy cows, which explore vulnerability, empathy and the relationship between humans and the animals that help sustain them.
The exhibition, “Unplowed Realities,” runs through Nov. 19 at Mad River Valley Arts in Waitsfield. A reception was held Sept. 18 with Shenk and O’Neal addressing the crowd.
EVERY ASPECT
Shenk’s questions about food began after years of professional cooking. He found himself asking what food actually means — not simply as something to eat, but as something that touches nearly every aspect of human life.
Food affects health and a sense of place, Shenk said. People gather around it for celebrations, religious ceremonies, friendships and other moments of connection. Virtually every discipline of human thought, he said, has a connection to food.
That realization became the basis for decades of writing.
In 1987, Shenk began adding weekly dedications to his restaurant menus, initially to acknowledge friends, family, teachers and others who’d influenced and helped him. Then a customer noticed when a dedication was missing.
MEANING OF FOOD
“I come for the dedication as much as I come to the restaurant,” Shenk recalled the customer telling him.
The dedications continued, becoming a place where Shenk could explore the history, science and meaning of food.
That same curiosity is evident in the exhibition. Shenk describes food through what he calls its “five faces”: hunger, flavor, nutrition, nurture and healing. The first three are physical, he said, while nurture and healing speak to the emotional and less tangible roles food can play.
His work also reflects his belief that growing food can reconnect people with the land. At American Flatbread/Lareau Farm, he focuses on soil health, nutrient density and biodiversity, seeking ways agriculture can work in harmony with the natural world.
RICH, DETAILED
Shenk’s work is markedly different from O’Neal’s meticulous cow portraits, a contrast he acknowledged during the reception. He described her drawings as rich, detailed and precise, while his own pieces are more childlike in their structure and style.
But the two artists share something fundamental.
“These little things are a joy to make,” Shenk said of his work. He described sitting down with pens or paints and experiencing a sense of freedom and peace — much as he has found in making food.
O’Neal’s cows begin with photographs. She spends time studying images taken in the field, waiting until something in a particular photograph moves her. Only then does she begin drawing.
FRAGILITY
She made her first cow drawing four years ago without intending to create a series. But as she returned to the animals, she began seeing something beyond their physical presence: quietness, vulnerability and fragility. Her drawings are arresting for how the cows are completely unguarded in their gaze. Her love for them is evident.
O’Neal does not draw the cows directly in the field. Instead, she takes photographs, studies them and waits for an image that seems to be “saying something” to her. Although the finished drawings are highly realistic, she said she is not simply trying to reproduce what she sees. She is “digging for something” beneath the image, often without knowing exactly what she is responding to until she spends time with it.
She works in long sessions, then steps away and returns to the drawing later. At home, she sometimes puts a drawing on the stairway so it can “stare right at me.” When she looks at it and thinks, “Okay, there you are,” she knows it is finished.
The drawings became a way to honor an animal that has nourished people for generations, she said.
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