These diptychs are selections from an ongoing personal project about how food is grown and consumed in California. As a Los Angeles transplant, I am particularly compelled by the state’s ecosystem of farmers, street food, and produce most home cooks can only imagine. In this work, I center the stewardship of a wide group of people from the moment a date palm is hand-pollinated to the minutes before marinated pork chops are seared off on a restaurant grill. I’m also interested in how visual patterns from disparate corners of nature overlap with and without human intervention. For example, the barnacles fanning out from a shallow rock on Venice Beach mimic the layers of leaves and fruit at Garcia Organic Farm, a citrus orchard cultivated on the steep hills of De Luz. The sugar crystals lining a cookie’s soft exterior evoke the same shine as the sugars in a sun-ripened date.
We are inundated with food content through all of our screens, particularly of the food porn variety. These pared-down images invite the viewer to hold space for process as much as pleasure.
Diptych 1
Dried dates at Bautista Family Organic Date Ranch in Mecca, California, on February 4, 2022.
Recipe testing a chicatana macadamia butter cookie at home in Los Angeles, California, on December 10, 2021.
Diptych 2
Young barnacles on Venice Beach in Los Angeles, California, on September 30, 2021.
Garcia Organic Farm’s citrus orchard in De Luz, California, on February 24, 2022.
Diptych 3
Marinated pork waits to be grilled by Chef Andrew Ponce at a Night Off pop-up dinner in Los Angeles, California, on December 13, 2021.
Hand-pollinated palms at Bautista Family Organic Date Ranch in Mecca, California, on March 24, 2022.
Diptych 1
Dried dates at Bautista Family Organic Date Ranch in Mecca, California, on February 4, 2022.
Recipe testing a chicatana macadamia butter cookie at home in Los Angeles, California, on December 10, 2021.
Diptych 2
Young barnacles on Venice Beach in Los Angeles, California, on September 30, 2021.
Garcia Organic Farm’s citrus orchard in De Luz, California, on February 24, 2022.
Diptych 3
Marinated pork waits to be grilled by Chef Andrew Ponce at a Night Off pop-up dinner in Los Angeles, California, on December 13, 2021.
Hand-pollinated palms at Bautista Family Organic Date Ranch in Mecca, California, on March 24, 2022.
University of California Press