(223) CHEZ PANISSE 38th ANNIVERSARY:

Edition of 717 of which 125 copies are signed 1-125, 26 copies are signed A-Z as artist's proofs.

No progressives.

August 7, 2009

17-5/8" x 24"
9 colors

Paper: Starwhite Vicksburg Sirius 110# Cover

Client: Chez Panisse Café & Restaurant,
1517 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, California 94709
Telephone: 510-548-5525

1-125: Saint Hieronymus Press

A-Z: Artist's own use

Green shoots sprouting in their serried ranks convey a pleasing, orderly display of vegetable energy. The ones I planted, that is. But there, springing up amongst their military rows appears a large, disorderly volunteer. A pumpkin, no less. I've tried repeatedly to raise pumpkins, to little effect, and here one is bounding up all unbidden in the very midst of my 8' x 12' Victory Garden, overshadowing the tomatoes, clambering up the hedge, sprawling over the walkway onto the grass, burdened with the promise of three large, visibly swelling pumpkins. One is already yellow-orange & the size of a basketball, so Heaven only knows what it will be like come Hallowe'en.

Hooray for that nascent, grinning, glowing Jack-o'lantern; that bigger and brighter vegetable, that unhoped-for, unplanned pumpkin. Whatever we set out to do, Nature has her own way: we conscript, Nature volunteers.