Heart O' Town

Heart O' Town, 16 x 12 inches, oil on linen

It ain't every day that you see last week's murder victim walking around like nothing happened. Especially one with long legs and a short skirt. I guess nothing's impossible in this town.

Here's the next painting in the cheezy motel series. It went through several incarnations in terms of the figures in the picture. Sometimes, I have in mind what sort of narrative I want to suggest with the figures. I never want to spell it out to the point it's hitting the viewer over the head, leaving the viewer with nothing to add. I like a little bit of sense of mystery, and I want the viewer to think about the story in the context of his or her own experiences and imaginations.

THIS painting, however, was not driven by a narrative. I placed the figures for purely compositional purposes, and only after I had a good idea where they were going to go, the characters and gestures, and consequently their relationships with one another, developed. In other words, the narrative emerged as I was painting, and I was but a spectator. I love that process. It's like watching a story unfold, and even though I'm the creator, I don't know what's going to happen. It's a pretty cool experience.

Here's the painting in my new favorite frame that I mentioned a few posts back. It's a classical scoop, but has really clean, modern lines. The finish is black stain over gold leaf, and I like that you can actually see the leafing wrinkles. (though hard to see in this little pic) The black stain is very warm, giving the exposed gold edge a more of a copper feel. It goes really well with my cityscapes. It's not the cheapest moulding, but since I'm buying over 100 linear feet, I was able to get a bulk discount. I'm not sure what the per ft cost turned out to be, but it's pretty reasonable considering the quality of the moulding. I'm very happy with it.

It also goes well with this stuffed eggplant curry I made a few days ago.

It's a hell of a lot easier to make than a painting. That's for sure.

For eight (or ten or a dozen) small eggplants.
1 onion
2 TBs tomato paste
1 can (14 ~ 16 oz) tomato (stewed or diced)
1 can (14 ~ 16 oz) coconut milk
1 pinch saffron (optional)



Paste:
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp cardamon
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
enough olive oil to make it pasty


In a bowl, massage plenty
of salt into eggplants. set aside - this helps to keep the eggplants nice
and purple when you cook 'em. Otherwise, they lose their color.

Make the paste by mixing all paste ingredients.

Rinse the salt off the eggplants, and cut two slits into each eggplant so it makes a X on the bottom. Keep the stem intact
so the eggplant doesn't fall apart.

Stuff each eggplant with the paste. Rubber spatula works best. Don't worry if it gets messy. It all goes into the curry so it doesn't matter.

In a heavy skillet, heat olive oil. Saute onion. Add the eggplants and saffron, Saute on high heat.

(If you want to add any kind of meat - lamb, bacon, or chicken - this is where you'd throw 'em in.)

Turn heat down to medium, add tomato paste and cook a few minutes.

Add the tomatoes, turn down the heat and simmer, for... I don't know ten minutes? If you go twenty minutes, you won't ruin it.

Stir in Coconut milk. Simmer another five or ten minutes. Take a little taste - if it doesn't taste curry-y enough, add more curry powder and cumin.


You're done! Serve over rice. If you want to garnish it, chopped scallions or cilantro (any little green stuff) looks really nice.


I'd pair this with beer, a spicy zin, or a very dry cava or prosecco.