Purple Mountain

9" x 12", oil on panel PRIVATE COLLECTION

Artists come from fields other than fine arts. Chicago chef Grant Achatz is one of them. Dedicated to his work, he exemplifies inventiveness in the food he creates at his restaurant, Alinea. He is known for creating special machines and techniques for synthesizing foods and scents never before paired. He received the James Beard foundation award for outstanding chef in 2008.

Achatz has a new book out co-written with Nick Kokonas:

Life, on the Line: A Chef's Story of Chasing Greatness, Facing Death, and Redefining the Way We Eat (Gotham Books, $27.50). In this autobiography he tells his story of being diagnosed with tongue cancer and risking his life in refusing the recommended treatment of removing his tongue. He lost his sense of taste for a period of a year, continuing to work at his restaurant with nausea. He raises the bar for all of us, artists or not.

Purple Mountain's idea is the heroic self. The mountain is a stand in for a strong person; full, solid, richly painted in large, layered strokes. In painting it I think of the slow process of making oneself from the inside out. It can take a long time.