Pingg

Food.

Not only necessary to keep us alive, food is a means of connecting, socializing, celebrating, mending a broken heart and infiltrating our souls with sinfully, buttery goodness.

Imagine a sizzling burger fresh off the grill with smoldering cheese dripping down the side, while a sliver of avocado clings to slices of summer-fresh tomatoes and crisp purple onions. Now, stop drooling. What does this make you think of? Backyard BBQs? Weekends by the lake? What about Sunday family dinners?

There’s something about food that makes me hungry. Hungry for a good time with good people.

Check out some of these photographs, illustrations and prints that give me my, well needed, food-fix.

I stumbled upon smittenkitchen.com the other day and had found my food porn Mecca. With close-up photographs of perfectly poached, dripping egg yolks to oozing, cheesy macaroni, smitten kitchen finds the beauty in every bite and crumb. Take for example, this picture of a perfectly ripe nectarine. Just the sight of it makes me think of summers in the country, running barefoot in the blazing sun. I can feel the juices of the nectarine dripping down the sides of my mouth while I take the first bite, breaking the protective skin.

I also loved this image of rolled up dough, ready for molding into something that you know will be uberly delicious. Imagine the photograph as an invitation. It’s perfect for inviting your significant other to a night of romantic and sexy home-cooking. You’ve heard it said that food is the way to a man’s (and woman’s!) heart. Well… what are you waiting for??

And who doesn’t love ice-cream? Check out Dora La MaDona‘s take on the classic cone. Using enamel and plastic, she turns a kid-favorite into an amazing, modern, super cool, piece of art. She also doesn’t just work with ice-cream cones… You should check out her take on donuts.

Also, her dripping ‘twin towers‘ with scoops piled high, melting into one sugary mess, gets my motors running. Whether for a girls-only day at the pool or a reunion with life-long camp friends, Dora’s art gets me in the celebrating mood.

And food doesn’t just have to look good, it can say something too. Take Logan Walters‘ design for example. Fun, cartoony slices of pizza, burgers, shakes and even some drum sticks, make up a statement that we all love to hear, ‘Lunch is on us’. I’d sure love to receive that in my inbox.

This is not a photograph. I repeat. This is not a photograph. While it may look like one, William Kay‘s pencil and ink portrayal of a bowl of strawberries and cream totally makes my mouth water. The color, detail, shading and even the little seeds on the strawberries tricks my eyes and my stomach. Mmmmm. Mm. Mmmmm. I’d love to send it to my Valentine.

And as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. But what’s even better? A picture with words. Check out Dara Pottruck’s Homemade Applecake print. The illustrated red apple makes the recipe come to life, right off the page. You know you’re going to be baking something fresh and delicious. It makes me want to go out right now and handpick a basket of apples.

Are there food photographs, illustrations, sculptures, prints, designs that get YOUR belly roaring? Tell me about them.