Self portraits

Self portraits

Saturday, December 10, 2011

With Kugel

Someone asked me recently how I met Frank Gaard. It was May Day, 2003, right after the parade at Powderhorn Park, and there was at a party at Emily Carter's house. I went with a friend ~ I didn't know Emily, but, presumably he did -- maybe not. But, anyway, we get to this party, and, yada yada yada, local luminaries at the food table. . . but, with little pretense, Emily had made a lokshen kugel! Nobody makes kugel for parties, except for Emily and my weird brother; and, nobody here in Minnesota would ever make kugel for random holidays, particularly for May Day.  It made a good impression and made me feel right at home, like I was with my aunt Elaine and it was a holiday or maybe a bris. Haimish ~ that's the word for the kugel, for Emily, Frank, the whole mishegoss. . . and the painting below(?).

Secret Garden

I discovered Frank on the back porch, and, next to him was this most unusual painting, which had been his gift to Emily on an earlier occasion.  The picture was a formulation, including minerals with their gram amounts; it looked a lot like the food formulations that I worked on for research in those days . . in the dreary basement laboratories at the University of MN. But, the formulation on the painting on Emily's porch was not for Kashi Chocolate Malted Crisp GoLean bars, (1 bar 55 g) . It was not for Pirate's Booty Smart Puffs, (1 serving 31.5 g). You will have to guess what it was for.

double portrait of Kate
For the past few years, Frank and I have been making portraits as a collaboration, painting the same model at the same time. We paint on our own paper or canvas, and both make large-scale faces, resulting in a psychological portrayal of two sides of one person, in conversation with themselves.

To see some of the 'double portraits', if  you happen to be on Facebook, go to:
Portraits by Frank Gaard and Pam Gaard

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