Succarines and Studio Shots

Here's to starting the new year right, with good studio days and family time. :)

The kitchen and the studio have always been connected in my brain. Both are creative spaces, full of experimentation and the inevitable occasional failure ("Hmm. I wonder how much I lost?"). The kitchen is a place of great inspiration for me... being Italian probably has something to do with that. The act of making a painting is a lot like cooking; it is a slow process, full of trial and error, sometimes even with recipes handed down through generations. Ironically, I'm not usually one for recipes in the kitchen, but I have started making notes on how I mixed certain colors... and that has proved tremendously helpful, especially for working back into abandoned paintings.

one such abandoned painting, in its unfinished state last summer:

and a detail shot, in progress once again... Sometimes I'm glad when I don't scrap old pieces.

But, back to the kitchen. This week mom and I made succarines (italian anise cookies) from an old family recipe. I'm not usually one to post pictures of food, but I think this is a worthy exception. Yep, they taste as good as they look - not too sweet, but not too heavy on the anise either. Since I can't share them with you in person, here, have a photo. Go ahead, lick the screen. :)