"Through her artful essays on food and life, which she first began writing in France in the 1930s, Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher transformed the mundane activity of eating into a passion. A unique blend of thoughtful instruction, sense-awakening recipes, and reflections on life's values, Fisher's writing is everywhere informed by her conviction that our basic human needs for love, shelter, and food are indivisibly connected.
Ginny Stanford, a self-taught artist [who just unveiled former First Lady Hillary Clinton's portrait [1] for the National Gallery] was introduced to Fisher in 1991, one year before the writer's death. She sought to paint the image of a courageous older woman "who could look unflinchingly at herself." Her brilliantly colored portrait [2], painted in the writer's California home, is a testament to Fisher's strength in the face of a string of illnesses, including Parkinson's disease, which eventually stole her voice."
Acrylic and silver leaf on canvas, 1991
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
© Ginny Stanford
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