You Are What You Eat

By Ruta Butkus Marino

Food is serious business in my husband's family. The Marino's have retailed fancy foods for more than fifty years, and for the last twenty years I have worked in the family store. Fourteen years ago, on a whim, I began making quilts and soon made several food quilts to hang in the store. In the last year I have used a collage method of applique to play with my food.

In the You Are What You Eat series, I explore my logical side (of course you are composed of what you eat) as well as the side that enjoys playing with words and ideas-especially exaggerated literalism. An art historian and art librarian by profession, I recognize my debt to the Italian painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527-1593), who created portraits of people using likenesses of food and other everyday objects.

I strive to avoid the need to create my own elements (photo transfers, hand-dyed cloth) because I favor making commercially available materials bend to my purpose. I especially enjoy using ugly fabric in a context where it contributes to an appealing overall image.

In my non-art life I am a fairly practical person-not known for my humor. So it feels a little selfish to realize that with my quilts I am just having fun-but I am!