Local Colorado Food in Color; Luciles Creole Cafe
04/01/2022
Taste buds are known for holding memories. With the right flavors a person’s subconscious can be opened up to a place and time. For me, Lucile’s holds the key to college memories. Maybe it’s just the nature of southern food, maybe it’s the New Orleans centered décor bouncing off the walls at all the locations, or maybe they’re just putting something in those beignets because Lucile’s always takes me back to hungover Sundays with friends.
Lucile’s is a small chain of creole restaurants in Colorado, one of the oldest residing off of Pearl Street in Boulder where my parents used to eat when they first started dating over 25 years ago! The menu is full timeless southern classic’s such as fluffy beignets covered in powdered sugar and cheesy grits made right, and it has kept Coloradans coming back for more. Each restaurant in unique with slightly different flavors and environments making you want to see another location next weekend with a mimosa in hand! After my grandmother had introduced me to the Lucile’s near her home in Longmont in 2015, I just knew I had to take my foodie college friends for a proper brunch one Sunday morning. For us, the Fort Collins location was the closest. After a 45 minute car ride through the fields of Greeley, a 45 minute bitter cold wait outside along with 45 minutes of complaints from said friends about said temperature, a warm plate of beignets smothered in house made jelly suddenly made the distance not big deal. From that moment on, Lucile’s became a common Sunday excursion. We became part of the horde of families and hungover college kids eagerly waiting on the sidewalk ever weekend.
Once you have a Lucile’s brunch, you never go back to “normal” brunch. Every other brunch you’ll eat ever again lacks soul…and fat. I guess that why it’s called soul food! Truly though, Lucile’s is a gift to land locked Colorado who is far removed from the joy that is southern cuisine. On my darkest days when I most want to seek comfort, Lucile’s is where my mind wanders. The warm interior full of voices shielding me from the chill outside. The old furniture creaking under me as my mind wanders through the walls and food. The laughter of time shared with friends and the foggy warmth of a meal sitting in your tummy. Comfort, joy, and memory embodies what Lucile’s is as a company, an embodiment that I’m incredibly grateful for.
For this illustration I have chosen a few of my favorite items off the menu. A mimosa made with fresh squeezed orange juice is a great way to start of proper brunch at Lucile’s while you settle in for the hour long (totally worth it) wait! Once you find a seat at an old table, coffee or Lucile’s house made spice tea gets the meal rolling with flavor. Beignets are a must order for the table, or you just haven’t been to Lucile’s. While the menu is huge and everything worth a try, my go to is always the gumbo. Deep brown in color and as thick as gravy, Lucile’s gumbo is REAL gumbo. The flavors pack a punch while providing a richness that proves this gumbo was not just “whipped” up this morning but made with the time and care it needs. Cared for is what you’ll be feeling when you leave Lucile’s. It’s a brunch worth waiting for and the perfect place to make warm memories.
Lucile’s is a small chain of creole restaurants in Colorado, one of the oldest residing off of Pearl Street in Boulder where my parents used to eat when they first started dating over 25 years ago! The menu is full timeless southern classic’s such as fluffy beignets covered in powdered sugar and cheesy grits made right, and it has kept Coloradans coming back for more. Each restaurant in unique with slightly different flavors and environments making you want to see another location next weekend with a mimosa in hand! After my grandmother had introduced me to the Lucile’s near her home in Longmont in 2015, I just knew I had to take my foodie college friends for a proper brunch one Sunday morning. For us, the Fort Collins location was the closest. After a 45 minute car ride through the fields of Greeley, a 45 minute bitter cold wait outside along with 45 minutes of complaints from said friends about said temperature, a warm plate of beignets smothered in house made jelly suddenly made the distance not big deal. From that moment on, Lucile’s became a common Sunday excursion. We became part of the horde of families and hungover college kids eagerly waiting on the sidewalk ever weekend.
Once you have a Lucile’s brunch, you never go back to “normal” brunch. Every other brunch you’ll eat ever again lacks soul…and fat. I guess that why it’s called soul food! Truly though, Lucile’s is a gift to land locked Colorado who is far removed from the joy that is southern cuisine. On my darkest days when I most want to seek comfort, Lucile’s is where my mind wanders. The warm interior full of voices shielding me from the chill outside. The old furniture creaking under me as my mind wanders through the walls and food. The laughter of time shared with friends and the foggy warmth of a meal sitting in your tummy. Comfort, joy, and memory embodies what Lucile’s is as a company, an embodiment that I’m incredibly grateful for.
For this illustration I have chosen a few of my favorite items off the menu. A mimosa made with fresh squeezed orange juice is a great way to start of proper brunch at Lucile’s while you settle in for the hour long (totally worth it) wait! Once you find a seat at an old table, coffee or Lucile’s house made spice tea gets the meal rolling with flavor. Beignets are a must order for the table, or you just haven’t been to Lucile’s. While the menu is huge and everything worth a try, my go to is always the gumbo. Deep brown in color and as thick as gravy, Lucile’s gumbo is REAL gumbo. The flavors pack a punch while providing a richness that proves this gumbo was not just “whipped” up this morning but made with the time and care it needs. Cared for is what you’ll be feeling when you leave Lucile’s. It’s a brunch worth waiting for and the perfect place to make warm memories.
Local Colorado Food in Color; Pho79
01/19/2022
|
The joy I find in food is immense. I will drive hours just to get food I adore. All of my friendships and family time revolve around food. I love food so much that if I could serenade a bowl of noodles from a rose garden in the pale moonlight and not look like a freak I would do it. This love has brought me to my next series of artworks which are watercolor illustrations of my favorite local foods in Colorado. It is important that we support and celebrate our local businesses, so I have decided to share where to get a great bite to eat that makes you feel good not just satisfied.
The first illustrated meal in the series holds an important place in my nostalgic heart; Pho. Pronounced like you are about to drop the F-bomb without adding the “ck” at the end, Pho is a flavorful Vietnamese soup made of a rich beef broth, rice noodles, spices and herbs, meat of your choosing, and an array of traditional toppings. It is the best food to heal the soul (in my opinion). Sad? Eat Pho. Sick? Eat Pho. Tried? Eat Pho. Happy!? Eat Pho. There is always time to eat Pho. This beautiful soup is served in the same way in the same method no matter where you are, making it incredibly coinvent. All the meat options for the soup come with a number, and then you just give the size you want. Five minutes later you are filling your belly with warmth. Because of this convince, “Pho tastes the same everywhere you go!”, says the fools; not true. The broth is slightly different in flavor from restaurant to restaurant and my personal favorite is Pho79 in Broomfield Colorado. |
I’ll admit, I’m biased towards this restaurant because I spent my childhood here. Only two miles from my parents’ business I spent many weekends slurping down noodles with my family in this establishment. Ten years later, Pho79 now has a huge bubble tea menu and fresh paint on the walls but is still my go to for comfort. The broth has the richest flavor I have had, and the other dishes on the menu stand up right alongside the king of soups. For my Pho79 illustration I have included a house made Milk Tea with Boba, an order of spring rolls with peanut sauce, and a medium bowl of number six Pho including all the toppings. The beefy goodness of the number six, the sweet tang of milk tea, and the salty freshness of the spring rolls is an order I dream about on a regular basis and order at least once month. Pho79 felt like the right place to start this series. This long-time standing establishment is a beautiful example of how diversity in America brings joy, and how a food can become a part of your narrative. Pho79 is worth a visit and a slurp!
|
Answering the Call; Inspiration found Locally09/16/2021
In a spur of the moment decision I choose I enter a local “call for artists” to create an ink painting titled “Emerging”. I’m very lucky to live in a place where local artists are cherished, and a space called The Collective (funded by donation and the local community) is always seeking artists to show. This fall, The Collective made the call for artist to create works including written word, photograph, and 2D visual art based off of the much loved “main street” sculptures. All along the main street of town, local artists have created magnificence sculptures from all kinds of materials to depict a vast array of objects and feelings. All that was required of this competition was to pick a sculpture, be inspired, and make an artwork based around said sculpture. I chose “The Landslide Juniper” by Tom Benedict.
The twisting and fluid carvings in sculpture reminded of draping fabric, a personal favorite subject of mine to draw. Ask any of my friends how often I have drawn a piece solely based around the fall of fabric and they will have to start counting on two hands and maybe a couple of toes, and that’s just in the last couple years! So, obviously, I was drawn to “The Lanslide Juniper” and while taking photos to begin my own work, I realized the wood held some resemblance to the figure of women with arms raised. And thus began the generating of a new ink painting. 
|
I chose ink for a number of reasons. One is the comfortably I have with the medium. I am confident in my history with ink to know that whatever came off the brush would most likely not be total garbage for the public to see. The second reason was time. I had only about three weeks to complete the piece, one of which was spent on vacay far away. Ink is a fast-drying medium and the lack of color makes a piece go a little faster. The last reason was the subject matter itself. The intense dark seen in the wood sculpture and the concept of an ethereal women emerging from the wood made ink the perfect medium to capture both the intensity, and mysticism, that I was aiming for.
I honestly don’t know how I got this piece done around travel, the start of fall semester for me and a broken ankle for my roommate. I do remember the sense of relief though as the piece flowed out of me. Art works can sometimes “fight” you while making them and I feared that if I began a piece that did not want to exist, I’d end up never finishing or turning something in with total embarrassment. Luckily, the sculpture had worked its inspirational charm and it reinvented itself on to my page with much ease. |
BTS and Studying the Human Face06/12/2020
|
|
Three years ago I started a project like I usually do; foolishly believing I’d get it done in the span of few months and as a gift for a family member. I have a true weakness for making gifted projects for other people, maybe out of a need to be the “unique” friend/family member or because it provides a sense of determined inspiration. Whatever the reason, projects based around other people in my life always have a tendency to eventually mean more to me then to the recipient. I make artistic discoveries with every blood, sweat, and tear moment. When I come to the end of a gifted project, elated at the growth I had made and ready see it in someone else’s hands. My k-pop portrait project gifted to my sibling is no expectation.
Before I can talk at all about my artistic process, I first must introduce the music genre K-Pop and the band BTS. BTS is an acronym hopefully some of you reading will recognize. If you don’t, it either means you are older than 30 and/or have been living under a rock for the last 5 years. BTS stands for Bangtan Boys (don’t ask me what THAT means I’m not that tuned in) and is a Korean boy band that debuted in 2013 although they did not hit true fame till around 2015. The band since then has taken the modern music scene by storm, breaking crazy records and becoming the first ever Korean group/artist to be nominated for a Grammy. I’ll admit, I like their stuff. It’s been fun to watch K-Pop come back to life after being stagnate since about 2010 and I (like everyone else under 30) became fascinated with this group of 7 smooth skinned, pretty, and handsome boys who seem to fallen out the woodwork with sudden gusto, but not as much as my sibling. My dearest younger sister adores the group and so I decided three years ago she deserved an artwork to show off her love.
After some thought, I decided for myself to focus on the iconic faces of the BTS band and create photo realism portraits, giving me a chance for some long-waited study of the human face. I knew this was going to be an interesting challenge due to the fact that I have worked very little with photo realism faces, and that Korean beauty standards for men is far different than what I am used to here in America. I was smart right off the bat (for once) and decided to go small with each of these portraits being on 10inch X 10inch canvas. After some google image searching and digital editing, each member of the group had a black-and-white photograph picturing them from the first ever music video my sister watched, “Dope” (link below), printed to perfectly fit the canvas size. I then got to work drawing the boys on the canvas using the photos as a guide. Once done with that, I covered the faces got to do the fun splatter backgrounds. Canvas splattered and face sketches safe, the tedious part that took me the next two and half years; painting. Tiny brush in hand and 100’s of hours later, the challenge has been worth it for the now thick folder of info I have stored in my brain about the human face and realism painting. The endless fasciation I had as I sat down with each boys’ features under strict scrutiny made me realize how the shape of a nose or ear has major influence on the look of an entire induvial. I’m looking forward to seeing 7 complete faces shining from my sisters’ wall, hopefully she loves to study them as much as I have!
Before I can talk at all about my artistic process, I first must introduce the music genre K-Pop and the band BTS. BTS is an acronym hopefully some of you reading will recognize. If you don’t, it either means you are older than 30 and/or have been living under a rock for the last 5 years. BTS stands for Bangtan Boys (don’t ask me what THAT means I’m not that tuned in) and is a Korean boy band that debuted in 2013 although they did not hit true fame till around 2015. The band since then has taken the modern music scene by storm, breaking crazy records and becoming the first ever Korean group/artist to be nominated for a Grammy. I’ll admit, I like their stuff. It’s been fun to watch K-Pop come back to life after being stagnate since about 2010 and I (like everyone else under 30) became fascinated with this group of 7 smooth skinned, pretty, and handsome boys who seem to fallen out the woodwork with sudden gusto, but not as much as my sibling. My dearest younger sister adores the group and so I decided three years ago she deserved an artwork to show off her love.
After some thought, I decided for myself to focus on the iconic faces of the BTS band and create photo realism portraits, giving me a chance for some long-waited study of the human face. I knew this was going to be an interesting challenge due to the fact that I have worked very little with photo realism faces, and that Korean beauty standards for men is far different than what I am used to here in America. I was smart right off the bat (for once) and decided to go small with each of these portraits being on 10inch X 10inch canvas. After some google image searching and digital editing, each member of the group had a black-and-white photograph picturing them from the first ever music video my sister watched, “Dope” (link below), printed to perfectly fit the canvas size. I then got to work drawing the boys on the canvas using the photos as a guide. Once done with that, I covered the faces got to do the fun splatter backgrounds. Canvas splattered and face sketches safe, the tedious part that took me the next two and half years; painting. Tiny brush in hand and 100’s of hours later, the challenge has been worth it for the now thick folder of info I have stored in my brain about the human face and realism painting. The endless fasciation I had as I sat down with each boys’ features under strict scrutiny made me realize how the shape of a nose or ear has major influence on the look of an entire induvial. I’m looking forward to seeing 7 complete faces shining from my sisters’ wall, hopefully she loves to study them as much as I have!
|
|