Maureen Melick

I embarked on this artistic journey for several reasons. Most importantly I needed an idea that was simple enough to execute, yet complex enough to keep me interested. Working with fruit and vegetables has an important relevance to me. I have been caring for children for the last 15 years and found that this subject has great significance to women at home. We provide our family with an abundance of fruit and vegetables every day. It’s also about eating better, seeing the beauty and simplicity in these forms.

I wanted to use these foods as a design element rather then a still life that is why I made the background without shadows.

The arrangement of the fruit and vegetables is where the intellectual part comes in. How to use a simple arrangement to signify life’s situations, or just a noun (hippie and Woodstock), which is also a play on words (rose hip=hippie).

The first of the series was The Habit. It started with an apple surrounded by 7 bananas. The apple signified a person (or me) and the bananas signified the addiction or the “habit”. This was later simplified to just 5 bananas and no apple. My colors originally were strait complements. After several paintings were done this was not always satisfactory and so has also been transformed.

I hope you enjoy this often-humorous work and may it give you Food for Thought.

— Maureen Melick
September 1999