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SKIN 2

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  "Mole" 2001 oil on masonite
© L. Kimberly Gillespie- Minneapolis, Minnesota
 
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For as long as I can remember, I have been obsessed with food. It’s not the kind of obsession I imagine people with eating disorders have because I have never been harmed, nor been in any danger of being harmed, because of it. But I think about food constantly and derive more pleasure from eating than do most people I know. Just thinking about cutting into the flesh of a ripe melon or peach can send me on an otherwise unnecessary trip to the grocery store at thirty below. As leavened bread swells in the oven and gives off its warm, yeast scent of sex, my body writhes in fits of spasms just before I sink into oblivion. The smell of burning bread is what wakes me up again and makes me think of roasted red peppers.
This painting is one in an ongoing series of paintings relating to food, desire, and literature. Most in the series are more fantastical in their imagery than "Mole," and were painted prior to the year 2000. Since beginning this body of work, I have moved on to different subject matters. Still, this subject keeps creeping back and when it does, I stray from whatever it is I am working on to tend to this particular fire, as all fires are worthy of tending