What is it about food? (This is not a cooking blog.)
Have you ever been hungry? Have you ever gone hungry?
These questions, so similar and yet so different, often play at the back of my mind.
I have not known real hunger in my life. Twice I tried fasting. (Twice was more than enough.) Once as a teen striving for weight loss (also known as eating disorder). Then later as an adult I approached it as a spiritual practice. Some folks can do this and extoll the clear headedness and focus they experience. I’m so happy for them.
Me? I’m a kinder, calmer person when I have my three meals a day. And maybe snacks, too.
“For even saintly folk will act like sinners,
Unless they have their customary dinners.”
~ Bertholt Brecht, The Threepenny Opera
When I become Hangry—spiraling into a blood sugar slump—I can be abrupt, critical, and downright obstreperous! Food, taken at timely intervals, and consisting of fresh and varied ingredients, is a form of vital mood regulation for me.
Staying in touch with and aware of my moods matters.
And, by the way, I make dinnerware.
Heirloom Quality Dinnerware by R. Waring-Crane
Total leap? Not really.
I delight in meals that nourish the body and the soul. Humble tomato soup from a tin tastes so much better eaten with a real spoon (not plastic), out of a ceramic bowl, placed on a table. Sometimes across from a gentle lunch companion.
I make dinnerware to help folks create homey moments like this for themselves.
Not everyone can do this. In fact, according to the World Health Organization, things are pretty bleak. “... the world is moving backwards in efforts to eliminate hunger and malnutrition.”
A couple of weeks ago I met my friend Chris. She works with a non-profit addressing the issue of housing insecurity for community members in Riverside County. Chris has never been homeless just as I have never gone hungry. This is no reason to step away from need.
As Chris tells me, the issues that call for the most careful and intentional work are like tangled tentacles. Food insecurity, homelessness, poverty, domestic violence, unemployment, mental illness, and trauma are all related and many of them exist concurrently.
So, where to begin? Systems.
In her book, This One Wild and Precious Live, Sarah Wilson posits that “Capitalism is a cult.” Ponder that for a moment. Think of how western culture, especially the US, worships wealth. We dream of making it big! In moments of crisis we have been encouraged to “keep shopping”. We inhale insidious messages to have more, more, more. A staggering number of us assume massive debt, but still feel empty, anxious, unsatisfied. And we don’t know how life could be otherwise. Sounds like a cult to me.
Agree or not, the system of capitalism as it exists today protects corporations rather than the welfare and wellbeing of people.
For example, the county of Riverside California has zero beds for pediatric mental health patients. Zero. If you can pony up for private care, you’re in luck, but if not, … County funding may go to upgrade sheriff vehicles to military standards to “protect” private property or businesses, but county-funded resources for teens who need care and protection because of mental health issues are non-existent. This is one example of how the system overlooks the wellbeing of the vulnerable.
This is a lot and it is terrible. I know. Flinging up my hands in despair is tempting. Or, I could channel that same energy in muscular hope. Not wishful, maybe someday, flimsy, wispy hope. But wide awake, show up and sweat, kind of hope.
This kind of hope also knows when to snack and when to rest.
We can each do something to change the way things are. We can pause and really consider the next online purchase, or take a walk instead of resorting to retail-therapy urge. We can mend and repurpose what we have. And we can use our skills to make a difference in the way communities allocate our tax dollars: writing, calling, caring, volunteering, voting, supporting, making art.
We can disrupt the system!
I choose to lean into food access and hunger.
My studio craft and my conceptual practice both revolve around food right now. Heirloom quality dinnerware is my current craft. This work is meant to bring mindfulness to meals for those of us who have access to the basic human right of food. It also helps me foot the grocery bill, as in creating my income and livelihood.
My conceptual focus addresses (and one day will help solve) the issue of food insecurity for children grades K-5 in the city of Riverside.
Both my craft and my conceptual work feed my soul.
I’ll write about these issues again as I carry them on my heart. For now, thank you for walking with me.
If you’d like to see my current craft work, come to Art Market, Saturday April 13 from 10-4 at White Park in downtown Riverside. Invest in a well-made dish, or ten! and accomplish three things at once:
Reduce the number of things in my studio/garage!
Encourage & support (feed) this artist so I can continue disrupting the system.
Enjoy owning or gifting an original, well-made piece of useful and beautiful art.
