The Art of Potato

"Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na prátaí." - An Irish Proverb

In English, this translates to: "Under the shelter of each other, the potatoes survive."

This proverb speaks to the importance of cooperation and community in overcoming hardships, emphasizing how working together can help everyone endure tough times—just as potatoes thrive when planted together in the same soil.

What is it about the humble potato that inspires such depth? such art, anticipation, and essays of study, poetry, and philosophy?

In the latest edition of Ithraeyat magazine, we pay homage to the 'art of food,' and I get a chance to explore my beloved potato and our collective memories and connections to it, whether fried, boiled, baked, or mashed -- ah, that special yummy potato.

There are various important artists and artworks that contemplated and featured this unassuming vegetable, with Vincent Van Gogh’s ‘The Potato Eaters’ being one of the most iconic ones.

“Painting peasant life is a serious thing, and I for one, would blame myself if I didn’t try to make paintings such that they give people who think seriously about art and about life serious things to think about,” wrote Van Gogh in a letter to his brother Theo, dated April 30th, 1885.

Through his use of dark colors, protruding bones, deep line strokes, and impossibly small details, Van Gogh captures the glum and difficult life of a peasant family.

According to the Van Gogh Museum, “Van Gogh saw the?Potato Eaters?as a showpiece, for which he deliberately chose a difficult composition to prove he was on his way to becoming a good figure painter. The painting had to depict the harsh reality of country life, so he gave the peasants coarse faces and bony, working hands.?He wanted?to show in this way that they ‘have tilled the earth themselves with these hands they are putting in the dish ... that they have thus honestly earned their food’.

He painted the five figures in earth colors – ‘something like the color of a really dusty potato, unpeeled of course....'

I discovered interesting facts, such as the potato being one of the world's most 'traveled' vegetables....

It has been quite a journey with the potato, where a very special potato salad reminds me of my mother.

To share your own stories with the potato and read more about it, explore our latest 'makhzan' (storehouse) of 'enriching' creative stories.