Gastro-Vision: Stomachache

Christina Mazzalupo, Countdown: Week 1, 2009. Ink and watercolor on paper, 22 1/2 x 30 in.
Courtesy Mixed Greens.

Gastro-Vision is my monthly Art21 column dedicated to all things food. This month I've written about a suite of drawings that are currently on view at Mixed Greens Gallery in New York. An excerpt:

Food diaries — daily records of everything one eats and drinks — are strange and fascinating objects. For nutritionists and dietitians, they are useful tools in determining a person’s eating habits and caloric intake. Taken out of a medical context, however, a blow-by-blow report of one’s ingestion seems trivial and neurotic. I’ll admit that I’ve kept my own food diary off and on over the years, repeatedly tucking it away once it became too tedious a task. When I stumbled upon one of my old journals a few years ago, I made a startling discovery: in logging teaspoons, cups, ounces and calories I had sketched a picture of my subconscious self. Bits and pieces of my life that were before unclear were laid out in my diet and notes. I was reminded of this epiphanic moment when I saw a new body of work by artist Christina Mazzalupo that takes her food diary as its starting point.

Jump over to the Art21 blog to continue reading.