For the Lettuce Man

ceramic, 2025

One of my many works using motifs of Islamic art to memorialize a personal story. This piece references a 16th century Persian tile, which enamored me and whose picture was taped to the wall of my studio. Instead of the tree that is framed in the original tile, here stands a head of romaine lettuce in honor of my father, who eats whole heads of the vegetable faster than most rabbits. It is his favorite snack, and the very first and often only thing he seeks at the grocery store.

These stories—foods, sounds, habits—- shape one’s personhood. Long, long lines of ancestry and fables and foods amalgamated in the lettuce man that raised me. I eat it too, now.