This summer, I’ve enjoyed the pleasure of contributing to Life and Thyme’s excellence in food journalism, but to get to illustrate for my mentor, L&T’s first guest editor, was tops.

Over the next few weeks, Nicole Ziza Bauer's series “Food as the Foil to Overwhelm” will walk through how food more instinctively, instantly and deeply connects us than all of the technology that promises to.

For Ziza's opening post, I created this idea of a rather sinister charcuterie board. 

In it, hands reach for a bite while ensnared by plug-in cords (Why did I let my phone get to 38% before getting to this party?), and notifications hide in sweet honey, while emails pile up under Google and Instagram wheels of cheese.

It’s hard to get settled, get calm, get fed, when all of those things keep tugging at your brain. They’re clamoring for just a slice of your attention.

But nourishment — physical, emotional and spiritual — isn’t fleeting, it’s foundational. And nothing slows us down like being next to the crackle, sizzle and rising of food.

Read Ziza’s first post here!