Is That Ketchup on the Canvas?

Bill Brady Food Art Exhibit
Food photographers make food look sexy, delicious and appealing for a living. My commercial work is geared to selling a product, mood or idea. Crumbs wants the public to crave their Crumnuts, T-Fal displays their perfect and dependable cookware, and the Quinoa Board must express that ancient grains equal a healthy lifestyle. Selling product is the bottom line in commercial advertising.

My art flies in opposition to my commercial work. The viewer is challenged to see food in a different way. Rather than objectifying food as an object of beauty and desire, food becomes integral in the play of color, light and composition. The result is abstract, sometimes beautiful, other times shocking.

Reducing foodstuff to its lowest common denominator, it becomes the raw material of expression rather than the end product. Just as a traditional painter uses oils, watercolors and acrylics, I use condiments, sauces and food. Common objects like candy or frozen peas become an elevated mode of expression.

Food Art runs from March 6- April 29 at the Martin Vogel Photography Gallery at the Port Washington Public Library. One Library Drive, Port Washington, NY 11050 www.pwpl.org
The opening reception is Saturday, March 8th from 2-4 PM. I will be lecturing on Monday evening, April 7th at 7:30 PM.