Edition of 100Everything Grows was illustrated and written over the summer of 2022, five months into the war in Ukraine and talk of global food shortages on the news. While listening to George Monbiot read his book Regenesis: Feeding the World without Devouring the Planet, I performed these private acts of mindfulness through drawing fruit and vegetables at my kitchen table in Madrid, disappearing into the wonder of colour combinations and the details of skin, contrast and light. Almost sixty years of eating apples and pears and peaches and a kind of intimacy develops, a knowing, a deep knowing that just by looking I know what they’ll taste like. I know this fruit, this vegetable, from the inside out, which has made drawing each one a physical pleasure. Anticipating the taste and texture, a somatic knowledge of form and structure, of shape, sensual in a way that does not happen with a croissant or a slice of pie. What I discover is the skin, the colours of surface and flesh. A deeper awareness of nature’s gift, the sense of being gifted this fruit, these vegetables, purchased for only a couple of Euros through the Too Good to Go app, food “saved” from local supermarkets that would have been thrown away. Over 1.5 billion tonnes of food is wasted globally every year, almost 80% of which is still edible. 26 cards with 31 illustrations, 14 cards blank on reverse Dimensions: 14.8cm x 21cm (5.8″ x 8.3″) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Shaun Levin (@shaunlevin)
