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Current Exhibition Toast a celebration of life!
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“ Toast: A Celebration of Life”
This show celebrates an important part of a balanced breakfast
BY DUSTI RHODES Houston Press
Linda Darke Swaynos and the greatest thing since sliced bread
When we called Linda Darke Swaynos to ask about her show “TOAST: A Celebration of Life,” she was thrilled. “Oh, that’s good, because I’ve been making so much toast!” she said with a giddiness rarely associated with breakfast foods. Her two-day exhibit features 2,400 slices of bread. Some are simply toasted, while others have images branded into them such as smiley faces and flowers. “There will be a big snowflake made of toast,” the artist says, “because just like snowflakes, each piece of toast is unique.” The show will also include a stack of toast as tall as Swaynos, creative centers for kids to make their own toast art, and even an adults-only section. “People can make their own X-rated toast and a Bloody Mary to go with it,” Swaynos says. “You’ll be encouraged to mess about.” Other facets include a haiku station where viewers can write odes to the greatest thing since sliced bread and “a big tribute to the poor heel that nobody ever wants.” The idea for “TOAST” stemmed from Swaynos’s ten-year devotion to the Atkins diet. “Ten years of avoiding carbs and not having lost any weight, bread has become more important to me,” she explains. Even though she began making the toast a week prior to the opening, Swaynos says it won’t mold before the show closes. “The beauty of toast is that it seems to be semi-permanent,” she says. But sadly, toasters were harmed in the making of this production. “I did six loaves last night and lost one toaster,” she says, explaining that it caught fire because a twisty tie fell into it. Two others burnt out in the week before the show. “It’s wasn’t their fault,” she says. “They were good toasters.”
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