Artist’s Statment: Peppers with Stone
Peppers, like puppies, are beautiful and funny at the same time. When there are organic peppers at the market, I pause to relish and choose among the unlikely shapes and rich reds, greens, yellows, oranges and purples.
    At home, I enjoy the sculptural forms in a white bowl-until they are roasted, or drafted into a salad with oranges and fennel, or slivered to garnish a bowl of
black beans-or photographed. This pair-a flamboyant gnarly chartreuse and classic red-were joined by a quiet stone and the edge of a tray-out of many compositions, this felt like the one for elephant. Bold and cluttered, yet still precise.
    Both balance and asymmetry are essential to composing an image, a recipe or a plate. I like to think of it as “creative tension.” Finding that point is the joy and challenge of visual work-one of its eternal mysteries. –Diane Farris