Big Art Big Appetites
Karen & Tony Supersize
by Eonn Skye
August 29, 2009

We want to caress that attractively voluptuous juicy meatball and embrace that enormous but pretty fork. This is the world of renowned Barone (rhymes with macaroni) the larger than life husband & wife artist duo at home here in the desert.

One feasts on optical fare while dining amongst Barone’s anamorphic work. It’s an industrial strength and flavorsome witty chew for the eyes.

A dose of Barone’s appetizing victuals will cure you of seeing dull by a transforming zeitgeist of easy to swallow commercial exhibitionism.

Visually eating the bright dynamics of pop art elevates the ordinary into iconic images of chow and associated tools.

The magnificence of a gigantor fork or the fun of a huge twisted noodle is something special to appreciate, a gleeful gluttony of unrestrained color upon properly proportioned extravagance.

For Barone, bigger is not only better, but more beautiful, and bravo magnifico !

“My father was a butcher,” said Tony Barone, “We grew up with a love of food. It was the expression of our emotions. We're Italian with a big, extended family. My brothers and sisters, parents, grandparents and god mother all ate together. Friends and extended family members made excuses to drop in around meal times. Life revolved around the dinner table.”

That dinner table is now the delicious world of art. The colossal hunger, that of brilliant and compulsive creativity.

Barone’s elemental sculptural creations are not simple limited rations but generous zaftig portions of a full five-course meal. There is little obscure or suggested – tasty details and sweet production values are sharply defined, fully realized, intentional and easily consumed. It is the artful presentation of the meal that satisfies as much as the intrinsic gastronomic tastiness of objects d’entertainment.

While results may appear easy and simple, the creative process is highly refined, like going grocery shopping for a large catered affair for some king, president or similar potentate. (Perhaps- the Jolly Green Giant?) In the uncluttered studio of their design kitchen they concoct the substance of physical art and ripen it in a process similar to the creation of restaurants (from around the world) that Borone has been involved in the design thereof.

What looks easy and tastes good begins as an idea first discussed amidst the duo then sketched. Moving down the assemply line it then begins to manifest reality via precision engineering undertaken on the drafting board. Barone has a master’s knowledge of fabrication techniques, production values, and marketing that makes this pleasurable work.  Barone is top chef d’art.

The history of this world-traveled duo reads like a name dropping menu; originating in Chicago (breakfast) moving to New York (lunch) then Tennessee (supper) then LA’s Venice community (dinner) They have been cooking as a creative force at their “paradise secco” (dry paradise) in Rancho Mirage (dessert) since 2005. Living in the secco has wet the appetite of Barone’s creative juices.

The Art Institute of Chicago prepared Barone, who was always called “the artist” growing up. He lives up to the moniker, fulfilling a self-made destiny, becoming what was imagained.

Their courtyard and inner spaces of the home are a banquet d’arts with sculptures growing everywhere. Not surprisingly, like a gourmet restaurant kitchen, the floor of their “in situ” production studio near their pool is so clean you could eat off the floor.

“This surprises people,” said Tony casually, “I don’t know why. We make these things here and it has to be clean.”

From plates to lazy-susannes to tables and tiles - their prolific production is obvious and impressive. Life is a constant picnic for Barone. The lifestyle and interworking production dynamics of this inseperable duo are a rich gestalt of marriage interwoven in 24-7 art.

“We’ve never been apart,” said Tony of his counterpart, Karen. Barone is as complex as it is elementary with two brain hemispheres interlinked as one. They function united. Karen, the female is partnered with Tony, the male. United they are one – Barone (rhymes with Tony)

Creating food for visual eats and sculpture inviting to tactile senses is fodder for an impressive introspection of supercharged color. It’s big, bright, tasty and easy to digest eye-candy for connoisseurs of pop, a cornucopia of visually-edible delight.

There’s is a cuisine of contemporariness with provisions for further amusing reflections. With a hunger for art, one wonders... What next from the refrigerator? What’s cooking on the stove? What kitchen instrument awaits deification? Some savor brief snacks – Barone’s art are treasured meals offering much more.

STILL HUNGRY? www.baronesculpture.com