Under the watchful gaze of an eye-wall of 20 liter pails the table is set.  Clean and clear.  On asking the waitress if the origin of the name was Spanish or French she waved for linguistic support.  The English question too muddled by translation and idiom.  The hostess came to offer a soloution.  La Leche is that first food we have as an infant.  The name is also Spanish for milk.  The idiom is both interesting and inviting — nurturing food!  At end of day we paused for nurture.  In the white space there was serenity, almost a primal pause in a colour saturated world.

In the search of images and imagery, the mural depicts a traditional image waving butterflies emerging from the nurture of a pupating chrysalis.  The parallel images of fingers savoring and foreshadowing.  The juxtaposition of the coloured image of the mural with the black and white set of the restaurant hints at the power of colour and the beauty of absence.  There is a schooled discipline in learning light and dark.

A few kilometers down the street (up steps, over curbs, tripping and stumbling) an image in the window captures students in a Saturday art school.  The splatter of colour, the posted and unmounted work, the work in progress and the playful attention all hint at “work in progress.”  The colouring of the landscape begins with sun.  The vivid presence of water, whales and wings are natural subjects for practice.  Yet, here in this “classroom” shapes, forms and faces augment the riches of the world as they found it.   Maybe “La Leche” is more than milk!  Nurture may reach beyond observation, beyond coupling and beyond reprieve.  The next generation deserves a seat at the table and we may need to build it.