Back in the studio — painting recipes?

Here we are in a Covid-affected world where we all have created our own “new normal”. For me this means working from home instead of the studio where I usually work as a full-time interpretive graphic designer.

One benefit for me of this new normal is I’ve finally had the opportunity to set up my personal artwork studio in my house. With more home-time and less rushing about, I have space to CREATE and I finally completed a long-time work-in-progress painting.

This painting is the first in a series that I’m titling The Recipe Box. The impetus of this project is my love of baking and fond my childhood memories of spending time with my parents. Couple those memories with the ritual of sharing time-honoured family recipes, copied by a familiar hand.

I love hand writing. Cursive or printed, I love it all. My own “hand” is very inconsistent. As a lefty I struggled with legibility and letter form. I copied from others that I admired and eventually found my own flow. My mother’s handwriting is one of my favourites. Although I never emulated hers, it’s just as much a part of me as my own hand is.

For me, hand written recipes feel like a hug. They’re reassuring, trustworthy and are treasured keepsakes on par with the family photo album.

The painting I made is of a portion of a recipe card for banana cake. It’s an often-made family recipe that my mom copied from my Aunt Sally. I love that this recipe links two of our families together and is written by my mom. Happy, happy memory.