Exploding Fruit

Kaethe Kauffman, Exploding Fruit, Ink, 2024, 15”x30”

The art process can lead an artist into unexpected byways. An innocent contemplation of harvesting autumn fruit took me in a surprising direction.

The end of summer means ripening fruit on the trees and expanding squashes, like pumpkins, on the vines. As they reach maturity, I become excited. Harvesting yellow and orange squashes, red apples, green figs and purple plums yield a bounty filled with tart tastes and sweet complex sugars. 

I set out to explore this abundance in my ink drawing, Exploding Fruit. A rounded fruit form sits on the left with a drooping stem on top. In my imagination, the ripe fruit proceeds to the next step on the right when I suppose that I take a bite and experience a blast of dense nutrients and savory sensations in my mouth. 

Although I intend the left-hand image to resemble fruit, later, after gazing awhile, it reminds me of a hand grenade. I laugh because either interpretation is appropriate to my theme. If a viewer reads the left image as a grenade, the explosion idea is appropriate. The grenade image works for me as a symbol. On a personal level, when I contemplate past unsuccessful relationships, I remember people who seem peaceful on the outside as I form a friendship with them. When I explore beneath the surface, our communication can, sadly, ignite with toxicity, well-illustrated by the design on the right.

When I first see a hand-held bomb, I feel that my attempt to draw fruit may have been a failure. As I think about it, I ask myself, Am I disappointed that my lovely fruit might also be a hand grenade? The answer is a resounding No. I love to see my unconscious at work and to later discover images that I’m wholly unaware of as I draw. It’s magic to me.

Whether I draw fruit or a grenade, my art process and aesthetic intentions are the same: I illustrate a passive object in contrast to a highly charged energy field. While creating this picture, I know that diagonal lines depict vigorous action. The detonating fruit/grenade on the right contains many slanted lines. The overall right-hand side of the drawing moves from the middle lower to upper right, conveying a feeling of power.

Rather than primary colors like red, yellow and blue that are upbeat, I use orange and green as the dominant hues. These secondary colors imply spirituality or otherworldliness. I pleasurably imagine a fruit’s flood of flavor in my mouth, a sublime experience. However, the jolt of a grenade can shoot you into another world with shock and awe.

A third art element is intense use of lines. Thousands of tiny ink lines comprise the fruit/grenade and the background, as if both are bursting with visible force. They create a busy texture that energizes the whole picture plane, and also provides visual consistency between the still object and the volatile side of the drawing, visually uniting the two extremes.

The three design elements – composition, color and texture – support the theme: a passive thing compared to a bang. I find the aesthetics deeply satisfying, whatever interpretation the viewer sees, fruit or grenade or something else entirely. Luckily, I love surprises and relish unexpected interpretations.

Exploding Fruit is available at the Walter Wickiser Gallery in New York: www.walterwickisergallery.com