‘Tomato Peps’ is a laser etched illustration that was originally a stencil. Most seasons, I try to get cherry tomatoes planted in the spring if possible. I always get excited when the fruits finally appear, even more as they ripen up. I’ve spent a lot of time fascinated by the rapid way the plants unfurl, the lines inspire me.

I painstakingly transferred the image from a salvaged digital file. Went down to the nearest art store to get some new graphite paper & retraced my lines. Scanned the image, brought it into illustrator and got lost in the details, literally. After some time cleaning it up & trying to sharpen up the lines I was finally ready to laser etch it onto 1/8″ poplar multiply. Needless to say the path I took for the perfect etching & cutting was a longer one than originally believed. In the end, while trying to fit a frame piece around it, one of the edges broke! So here this piece remains, forever unfinished. Luckily I have more…