Katherine Hoffman, a West Windsor resident and an illustrator graduating in the 2008 Fashion Institute of Technology Masters Illustration Graduate program, has created six illustrations that will be featured in an exhibit at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York from Thursday, June 5, until Saturday, July 12.##M:[more]##
The show’s opening at the gallery, located on Seventh Avenue at 27th Street, will take place on Thursday, June 5, from 6 to 8 p.m.
Hoffman’s illustrations — 20 by 24 inch oil paintings framed with salvaged barn wood to represent sustainability — express her opinions about current food politics, she says. Hoffman says she became inspired to depict fair and direct trade, corn for ethanol, antibiotics used in agriculture, localism, genetically modified food, and cage-free issues after her own personal experience with celiac disease, a digestive disease that damages the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. People diagnosed with the disease cannot tolerate a protein called gluten.
Diagnosed in August, 2007, Hoffman says she became more aware of what she was eating. “That really sparked everything for me, which is a really good thing because now I feel like a new person,” she said, adding that she began eating more organic and hormone-free food. In addition, Hoffman says she began doing research and reading various articles about “current food politics.”
“It shocked me when I discovered that 25 million pounds of antibiotics are used on dairy cows every year,” she said.
Hoffman’s doctor asked her to keep a written food journal to keep up with the disease, but Hoffman struggled to keep up with it. Instead, she started drawing illustrations relating to her diet in her sketchbook, which led to an illustrated food journal. “From sketching personally in my journal, it led me to really enjoy this,” she said. “When it came time to propose the whole exhibition idea, it came from my sketches really, so it was a whole chain of events.”
Hoffman, who works for Jones New York as a technical illustrator, says creating the illustrations gives her another type of creative avenue. She and her husband, who works for a pharmaceutical company, moved to Berrien City from Pittsburgh in 2005 as a result of his job. Her father is a retired civil engineer, and her mother is a physical therapist.
Researching for the illustrations taught Hoffman “a great deal about what is really going on in the food industry today,” she says. “I can only hope that my illustrations will educate the public to become more aware.”
The exhibit features Hoffman’s work as well as the work of the other eight graduates in her class. The event is open to the public at no cost.
The Museum at FIT, Seventh Avenue at 27th Street, New York City, 212-217-4558. www.fitnyc.edu/museum. Hours: Tuesday through Friday: Noon to 8 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Opening Night: 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
