Food Inc. Movie Premier and Eats & Beats

I went to the Food Inc. movie premier tonight (free tickets were given out to see it at the Ritz Borse) and it was much of the things I know from work, corporate food vs. local growers, but some new stuff: the companies that control the chicken, beef and pork, corn and soybean seeds.

There were the usual experts: Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation and Michael Pollan author of Omnivore's Dillema, but the best character in the movie is Joel Salatin
owner/farmer of Polyface Farms in Virginia, who feeds his livestock grass, and has the most matter of fact way of describing how scewed the food system has gotten when he describes how his cows eat grass.

I've been trying to wean myself off of plastics and this movie made me think more about cutting out traditional food products, esp. industrial meat. I've been shopping almost exclusively at Whole Foods, but I really don't know where the turkey I bought came from, or if the salmon is fed corn. And it makes me strongly consider buying the meat products at Farm Fresh Express or farmers markets. I knew about the industrial mechanization of the meat corporations, but I didn't think about the chemicals and poo and ecoli and where it comes from (even on spinach).

This is all connected with my work for the Urban Nutrition Initiative and I'm excited to go the the Eats & Beats dinner on Saturday night, 5:30-8:30 at 48th and Baltimore Ave. The high school farmers and chefs are doing the most of the cooking, but they also have donations from many local restaurants and farms. I took photographs of the garden they tend at University City Hish School, my garden at Spring Gardens Community Garden and at Reading Terminal Market at Iovine Brothers and Fair Food Farmstand and they will be on the silent auction tables, matted and in sets of cards.

SUPER WEEKEND: SHAD FEST and ARTS CRAWL

Join me this weekend at the Shad Fest in Fishtown at Penn Treaty Park on Saturday April 25 from 11 - 5 pm! I will have new images from the Eastern State Penitentiary, from my trip to Charleston (beautiful bridges, pelicans, boats on the water) and from my series "My Fairmount," images of homes, signs, businesses and details. There will be a run, guided trolley rides, kayaking, music, food, kids activities and of course art and craft booths. Follow the link to directions and all the activities.



Then join me on Sunday April 26 for the Fairmount Arts Crawl at Rembrant's Restaurant at 23rd and Aspen Streets, next to the Penitentiary, from 2 - 6 pm to check out my show in the cafe (room behind the bar). I will have framed individual photographs, large photo collages and image grids of the "My Fairmount" series, along with a first draft of a hardbound book of the series. Follow the link for a list of events and venues for art as well as the artist profiles.

Whole Foods Local Thursday

I was selling at the Whole Foods Local event this Thursday, and even though people weren't buying, I got to enjoy Funk Harp music, meet some other vendors, chat with shoppers and do lots of planning for the October 18th Craftadelphia sale and reception for Design Philadelphia at Mew Gallery.
I'm going to be printing photos of New Orleans in soy ink on recycled paper and working with a woodworking class to make frames from reclaimed wood. Part of the proceeds will go the the Green Project in New Orleans, where I used to work. They reclaim building materials of all sorts, toilets, claw foot tubs, doors, windows, lumber and lots and lots of paint to keep it out of landfills and they sell it cheap to homeowners rebuilding after Katrina.
I was also working out what I'm going to give away at the Swap-A-Rama-Rama in the free Etsy Team Philly tote bags. I decided I'm going to make mini picture cards on recycled paper from my office, but I'm cutting circles out of old pictures on the card front. Then last night, I was liking how the pictures full of holes were looking, and talking to my friend on the phone and he suggested I re-assemble the background and put different circles back in so I started making the images above, glued to a Urban Outfitters frame paper. I really like them. I pulled some pictures I liked as covers to mini notebooks/cards, so I'm getting at least 3 projects out of these pictures that have just been sitting in a box under my bed for a year. So it was a productive slow show. I'm psyched about Swap-A-Rama-Rama, I keep telling people about it.