Portland Press Herald: A farmer in Rockport turns vegetables into high fashion

By Meredith Goad - Staff Writer

ROCKPORT — They say food can be art, but sometimes art can be food. Art can be onions or carrots, or even 5-year-old broccoli. Yes, 5-year-old broccoli stalks, which, oddly enough, look like pieces of wood. Farmer/artist Jacinda Martinez pulled out a giant plastic tub filled with them in her basement studio. “I’m always afraid when I open these that I’ve created a creature that’s going to come out,” Martinez joked as she lifted the lid off the tub. Last year, Martinez sewed some of these stalks together vertically to make a midriff, then added a “skirt” of amaranth that still retained some of its scarlet color. The result was a stunning (if skimpy) outfit you might not wear to run errands, but it would look at home on the runway of a New York fashion show. Continue reading…

Maine Farmland Trust Journal: Jacinda Martinez - dressing up with nature

Review by art critic Britta Konau

Jacinda Martinez does not just make art about agriculture, but with it. Her alignment of human and vegetable forms shows a fine sensitivity to character and the aesthetic potential of both.

Since 2009, Jacinda Martinez has been creating her series Fashion in the Raw, sewing or braiding chard, radicchio, celery, cabbage, and much more, into  complex dress forms. Parsley sprigs line up into a skirt; radishes form a bikini top, their tips threaded into a necklace; prickly layers of leaves and vines sweep dramatically around a model’s nude body. Continue reading…