The Hand That feeds

The explanation of how a work manifests is sometimes much simpler then it would seem. An example of how sometimes “art just happens” is the case with the work titled “The Hand That Feeds”

I was dining with my wife at a new restaurant called The Revolver Taco Lounge in Ft. Worth Texas. The maitre di', Marko, was telling us about how he had moved from Chicago with his good friend and owner, Gino. Gino moved his entire family from Chicago to Fort Worth to start this new place. Everyone works in the kitchen making the wonderfully fresh cuisine. Gino arrived at our table with a dish of exquisitely prepared ceviche and placed it in front of me. I noticed a beautifully elaborate tattoo design on his hand and forearm. The tattoo is reminiscent of the scrollwork you would see on a fancy tea service, lacy and delicate but bold at the same time. Having an interest in body art I asked about the work and Gino explained that he had the tattoo done in town but that his father drew the artwork for the design. The original design was created by his great grandfather back in Mexico where Gino’s ancestry had been in the metal-smithing business for almost 300 years. The business specialized in the decoration of weapons and cutlasses etc. The design on his hand was a continuation of a design found on a family heirloom, an antique revolver. “If I hold the revolver,” Gino said, “the design on my hand compliments and continues the design on the gun.” I said that if he had the revolver that I absolutely had to create a work of him holding the weapon. The revolver, as it turned out, was more beautiful than I could have imagined, with inlaid gold forming a reverse relief pattern. The final work “The Hand That Feeds” is a tribute to Gino’s extraordinary heritage and his honoring of that history, his entrepreneurial spirit and an homage to the art we inherit, be it fine or culinary.