Supporting My Community with Tomato Art
The 15th Annual East Nashville Tomato Art Festival is August 10th & 11th. Whoop!
I always want to support my community. I love living in East Nashville, and my studio is in East Nashville so I really wanted to participate and create Tomato Art again this year. I especially love this piece because my cat, Olive, has made her first debut in my composite artwork. Bribed by treats, she can pose perfectly. :) So expect to see her again from time-to-time. I also love how light-hearted it is.
This piece is called "The Night Shade Maiden". At first, I had an entirely different concept in my mind for this year's tomato art. I had asked my love, Justin, to bring home some tomatoes on a vine so that I could photograph them. As soon as I saw what he bought, a whole new vision popped in my head, and I pivoted to create this piece instead. It's amazing how you can see things differently, pivot and create something entirely different in your life. Who knew tomatoes where so inspiring!
I was specifically inspired by the curve of the vine and how it held the tomatoes. I immediately saw a girl (a.k.a me) on top of the vine and a cat looking up at her. I was thinking about how Olive always follows me around curious about everything I am doing. So, between the tomato vine inspiration and Olive's day-to-day curiosity, this vision was born. It's whimsical and magical which is where my imagination hangs out most of the time.
For those of you wondering what the heck is the Tomato Art Festival, it is a festival located at East Nashville's 5 Points celebrating the Tomato.
And when I say celebrate, I mean CELEBRATE! There's a parade, a costume contest, a bloody mary contest, an art show and contest, a 5K run, an Artist fair, multiple stages of live music, and any other way imaginable to celebrate the tomato. Why the tomato? They are delicious and in season right now but really it is because the tomato is the uniter and not the divider. Essentially, most people think the tomato is both fruit and vegetable hence the Uniter not the Divider. For the science folks out there, I know it is technically a fruit because it has seeds but just let us have a little fun! We could all use more uniting and less dividing these days.
Art and Invention Gallery hosts over 300 tomato inspired pieces. This artwork will be exhibited there. Purchase your ticket to the Art Preview Party on Friday, August 10 to see this piece in person as well as many more awesome, creative tomato pieces. Then join the celebration Saturday, August 11 for a day of fun-filled tomato celebration. If you don't make it, all the art work will be up for the month of August.
To see more of my composite artwork, go here.
I hope I get to see you at Tomato Art Fest!
Love,
Judith
P.S. My favorite tomato song is by Guy Clark called "Homegrown Tomatoes". I love this song as much as I love tomatoes!