Story Behind The Eggs

When people walk into my studio these days, they smile and ask me, “Why eggs?”. So I gave this a bit of thought.

Of course, the quick and easy answer is that eggs are a key ingredient for baking, which keeps the food theme going. But I usually leave the baking to Bonnie. Eventually I realized there was more significance to these eggs.

The immediate inspiration for the egg series was a carton of double yolk eggs from last year. I couldn’t believe the whole carton was full of double yolks.

I kept my camera by the stove and took photos every day when I made my egg (or is it eggs?). I missed a few photo ops before I realized what a gold mine of inspiration this could be. I took photos of the eggs in various states – from raw in a bowl, cooking in a pan, to sunny side up. During the 30/30 Challenge in January, I did small oil paintings of eggs for the first time.

After someone mentioned that double yolks were lucky, I looked up the symbolism on the internet. It turns out that double yolk eggs are considered omens of abundance (as in pregnancy and fertility, twins), good fortune, and the union of two people in marriage (double yolks in one shell = union of two people in marriage).

This last point got me thinking. Then it hit me – bingo! – and I realized Mom and Dad met over a carton of eggs!

My grandfather, Sidney Fishman, used to own a gourmet grocery store on McNichols in Detroit, called the Market Basket.

He got his eggs delivered from my other grandfather, Maurice Shipko, who started talking about his son in dental school. The two men exchanged phone numbers and my parents ended up going out on a blind date. The rest was history.

My parents were married for 64 years because of those eggs. So now you know the whole story. Apparently my subconscious did too.