On Creating "George and Glenda Make Dinner"

I was very pleased to find that the short story assigned to me for the Fall 2018 issue of the North American Review was about food. I have a passion for not only cooking food, but also drawing and painting food. I have always found that food and art are very similar in that people eat with their eyes. The texture, shapes, and colors in food are always entertaining to paint and a fun challenge to make my audience believe how tasty the subject is. Painting the naan and dal was a treat.   

Another way I believe that food and art are similar is that they are great media to bring different people together. I felt this connection with George and Glenda’s characters in “Shrubs” by Susan M. Gilbert-Collins. Scale is something that I wanted to play around more and felt this was a good opportunity as well as a way to convey how important this dinner was to Susan’s character. George is trying his best to impress his love, Cynthia, and what other way than to use the metaphor of a heart shaped plate to fill his affection for her. 

As I was sketching for this piece and playing with the scale of the characters, I couldn’t help but remember the late 90’s Nickelodeon short animations “Amby and Dexter” where two very tiny characters are working together to accomplish human-scaled activities. This unintentionally became my modern take on it. Glenda and George are working together to make the best impression for Cynthia.