Considering Agriculture through Paint

Hello! My name is Eliza Murphy. Growing food and its implications has been very important to me for a long time, and I owe a lot of that to the summers I worked at Land’s Sake. Currently I am not farming but focusing on my art practice, in which agriculture is integral.  A lot of how I understand the food system and farming comes from my experiences working on farms, and I want to pursue some works that study how other people relate to farming and food. In order to delve into these ideas about the relationship to land and farming, I am creating a series of paintings.

Specifically, I will look at the way people relate to farming and memory in two very different places, starting with Boston, MA and Bolero, Malawi. In each of these disparate places, I will interview a sample of people. In order to get a fuller idea of their experiences, while I record the interviews I will also sketch, take notes and photographs. From this gathered material, I will paint portraits, either of the interviewee’s likeness, or the memories they relate to me. Through the paintings and information I gather, I will study the variables and facets that make up the communities relationships to food and agriculture. I will build up a series of paintings that will work alongside these findings, that address the comparison between the two places and whatever else may come up. As a vehicle for this work, I will create a book, which will provide a different mode for expressing my findings.

To view a video about this project or to provide support, please click here.  Please become a backer if you can!!

Eliza Murphy, Guest Blogger