Tiny BookS: "Food Love" & "Alimento Y Amor"

Food Love as a concept was seeded in several years of training in leadership. The tiny books I created for my final project in Ecology of Leadership in Bolinas, California ( 2010-2013 ) were written for an English and Spanish reading audience. Their inception and inspiration had everything to do with former First Lady Michelle Obama: her organic White House garden and her Let's Move! Initiative. My personal motivation in diving into what is food love -- was to address my own issues around food, self-love, sharing, and community. As a result, the original bi-lingual cloth books are each a call to action and every pose for the imagery grew from my seeds of inspiration in this rich soil.  With the support of art students at the University of California we co-created the essence of my message, mirroring Mrs. Obama for total self-care and a healthy, positive relationship with food. As I made the original hand - painted cloth books into a self-published collection of 100 paperback bi-lingual tiny books, I gifted the former First Lady my original cloth books, including thirty copies in the mail to The White House for Christmas of 2012. Fast forward to early 2016, very involved with the arts community, I successfully promoted the idea to a local business facing the downtown farmers' market of turning the empty walls into a relevant mural with my Food Love imagery. Showing the owners the two thank you letters from the President and the First Lady of my community leadership for the books, the owners chose three images from the books for what is the Food Love Mural today in Downtown Santa Cruz, CA. In short order my A Team of mural painters was formed and we rocked my books onto three panels on the west-facing wall!  Spring of 2016 the Food Love Mural Project funding and painting completed, the mural was dedicated to the public in May of 2016. It is dedicated to California Congressman Sam Farr (retired now) who supported this project and to First Lady Michelle Obama who had thanked me for the books and for my dedicated work.  

I am truly grateful to my team on the mural project and the tiny books. It took artists, muralists, financial contributors, a videographer, sponsors, and my love of community collaboration to say humbly... "it takes a village". 

Since the early days of concept to fruition, the Food Love project has caught on. Many supporters have suggested the tiny books would continue to succeed in the form of a coloring book. So for the first time, in my shop I am offering the Food Love Coloring Book. The journey from seed to ripe fruit will hopefully contribute to the continuing fruition of creating a better world we inhabit of heart and mind together. 

Coloring Book: "Food Love" & "Alimento Y Amor"