There was a time after college when I was fortunate to spend a few weeks in a small Umbrian hill town. The recent art call from What’s Next for Earth, “Meeting Essential Community Needs,” encouraged me to reflect on an early experience that has informed my life. Though times were not easy for the residents, the warmth of community and the celebration of seasonal resources made “enough” often feel like abundance, a relevant perspective for these times.
Left: Enough/Pear Basket with Lemons, 2023
©2023 Diane Farris
Right: Pear Basket, 2000
©2000 Diane Farris
People brought what they had to the town square market: figs resting in their leaves, zucchini with open, golden flowers, ripe melons, breads shaped like roses, baskets of fresh cheeses and eggs, honey, and aromatic olive oil. Essentials like tomato, basil, thyme, and rosemary plants in clay pots crowded windowsills and gardens. People flowed in and out of narrow coffee bars filled with laughter, talk, and debate over who would treat friends to a coffee this time. Laundry hung from windows in soft arcs. Around lunch and dinnertime, people would drift home to dine with family or gravitate toward small restaurants with a half dozen tables, enough for the owner/cooks to make a living and small enough to open and close as desired.
I had a room above such a restaurant and had the opportunity to learn and help in the kitchen, where Signora Adele presided with calm and expertise. The kitchen was lively with children and pets, friends and family, bringing news, produce, or bread, pouring another coffee from the worn espresso pot. Hot water was heated on the wood-burning stove – and live pigeons were held in the cold oven (perhaps foreshadowing my vegetarian future). Great sheets of pasta would be rolled out on the table with a broom handle, then folded and cut into wide tagliatelle noodles. This is where I learned to make the risotto described in my pandemic blog entry, Zoomsotto, a dish built simply, no recipe needed. Leftover risotto could become suppli al telefono the next day, filled with local cheese and rolled in saved breadcrumbs. Those breadcrumbs could also stuff tomatoes or trout – or dress a pasta dish. I enjoy the way one dish can weave into another through lines in the kitchen’s story.
Studies of People in the Restaurant
©2000 Diane Farris
Many practices from that time shaped my daily life, from pasta and bread making to gardening and composting. I’m part of the Seed Savers Exchange seed trials, a small contribution to their great project of sustaining vital heritage seeds. I garden with the Yardbirds, a group of friends who have met monthly to garden and dine together for almost twenty years. Like the people in those tiny coffee bars, I’ve delighted in community, gathering over coffee, kitchens, around tables – and in gardens, however, known. In the Italian town, there were celebrations from the arrival of seasonal foods like mushrooms or snails to parades, pilgrimages and picnics for every event and occasion. We share this sort of joy (except for snails) with friends and family – especially grandchildren, hoping they will feel close to and celebrate the earth’s seasons and feel the fullness of “enough”. We hope they will find support, solutions, resilience and joy in gathering with others in the times ahead.
A dear friend here connected me with What’s Next for Earth last year. There, I am discovering a rich, collegial group of creative thinkers, sharing profound concerns and grief over the poly-crises, broad knowledge and stimulating, generous ideas. Moving through Richard Heinberg’s Think Resilience Course from the Post Carbon Institute together has given us an excellent, shared focus. There are times when being an environmentally concerned artist is isolating. What’s Next for Earth brings us together, welcoming our work and concerns.
The Pear Basket image was an homage. In it, Signora Adele rolls out pasta dough; a table welcomes the company and fresh produce spills from a market basket. Enough/Lemons with Pear Basket is a new version with today’s resources represented by lemons from our backyard Meyer Lemon tree, awaiting shared preparation and enjoyment with children, family, and friends. In the background is the original photograph Pear Basket and a page from a vintage dictionary in which “enough” is defined as plenty and even abundance. The sketches included in this post are from those early days when I was photographing, drawing, and painting, often people, subject matter I’m revisiting with a series on local gardeners. Return journeys to Italy appear in two portfolios on my website, Italian Time and Italian Time: Ariccia.
This is the fourth call from What’s Next For Earth in which I’ve participated. The full texts and images are available on Instagram @dfarrisgville and the Whats Next for Earth website. Here are the images with their titles and the section titles from Richard Heinberg’s Think Resilience course.
Diane Farris is an artist/photographer working in Gainesville, Florida. Her work has been widely collected and published, is in museum collections and public commissions as noted in the expanded website biography at www.dianefarris.com/bio Recent shows have been at the Palazzo Chigi in Ariccia, Italy and The Palm Beach Photographic Museum. She has worked with the themes of home, nature, water and sustainability. These themes come together in images of the Florida prairie and its Sandhill Cranes. The body of work called Volumes explores a long standing interest in books and book objects. See portfolios of work and bookmaking projects here:
Site and Blog: www.dianefarris.com
On Instagram: @dfarrisgville
This article is part of the MAHB Arts Community‘s “More About the Arts and the Anthropocene”. If you are an artist interested in sharing your thoughts and artwork, as it relates to the topic, please send a message to Michele Guieu, Eco-Artist and MAHB Arts Editor: michele@mahbonline.org. Thank you. ~