a love letter to poached pears

"A LOVE LETTER TO POACHED PEARS" 2024

An original freehand wood burning on 9x13x.5" live-edge basswood.

This one is for; nostalgia, family dinners, generational recipes, fancy restaurants and home-made staples, sharing food, favourite spoons, scrappy handwritten cookbooks, endless vineyards, pear trees in blossom, cosy evening desserts, but most importantly -- this one is for feeling like home.

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I can't properly explain why I felt the pull of writing a love letter to poached pears of all things, considering I've personally actually never had one. It wasn't a recipe which weaved its way through family history, nor does it hold status of a trademark restaurant experience at some fine dining event. Maybe there's a spark between us I just haven't yet had the pleasure of exploring -- but still, something about the concept of poached pears just feels like... a dessert, a moment, a memory worth romanticizing. And, subsequently, worth illustrating.

It's almost as if I'm creating those desserts, those moments, those memories I don't actually possess in a way that feels peculiarly real and while I know I don't have that joy to hold, I am so entirely certain there are so, so many who do. Is it a household staple? Is it passed down by handwritten instructions on yellowed notepaper? Is it a family or certain family member favourite? Was it a rerun on a cable TV cooking show that you used to watch? Or, like me, is it an experience without the experience? Maybe I read about it in a book once upon a time, who's to know. Nonetheless; here is my love letter -- to poached pears.

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Hardware for hanging not included.

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Designed and burned freehand hand on live-edge basswood slab, lovingly coffee painted for that delightful vintage aesthetic, and finished with non-toxic natural Danish oil.