Suzy Kopf

A staple of American households from the 1940s onward, the orange juice glasses depicted in this watercolor series were sold in so-called “Hostess sets” that typically included a carafe or pitcher and six to eight glasses. Priced cheaply for everyday use, they sold in the millions with the two major midcentury manufacturers, Libbey based in Massachusetts, and Anchor Hocking based in Ohio, duking it out for market share. Atypical for the time and still in production today, Libbey’s whimsical designs were the byproduct of the Jewish female design team of Freda Diamond and Virginia Hamill. Diamond, who stayed at the company until the mid-1980s was recorded in a 1954 Life magazine as having “probably done more to get simple, well-styled furnishings into every room of the average U.S. home than any other designer.” Today, the majority of these sets are incomplete and sold in antiques malls and thrift shops. The photographs these paintings are based on were found on Ebay and other resale websites, where lots of midcentury enthusiasts buy whatever remains they can find of this period of design.

A staple of American households from the 1940s onward, the orange juice glasses depicted in this watercolor series were sold in so-called “Hostess sets” that typically included a carafe or pitcher and six to eight glasses. Priced cheaply for everyday use, they sold in the millions with the two major midcentury manufacturers, Libbey based in Massachusetts, and Anchor Hocking based in Ohio, duking it out for market share. Atypical for the time and still in production today, Libbey’s whimsical designs were the byproduct of the Jewish female design team of Freda Diamond and Virginia Hamill. Diamond, who stayed at the company until the mid-1980s was recorded in a 1954 Life magazine as having “probably done more to get simple, well-styled furnishings into every room of the average U.S. home than any other designer.” Today, the majority of these sets are incomplete and sold in antiques malls and thrift shops. The photographs these paintings are based on were found on Ebay and other resale websites, where lots of midcentury enthusiasts buy whatever remains they can find of this period of design.

By the late 1930s the citrus growing market in the US had reached its pinnacle output and, wanting to capitalize profits, advertisers focused on the “healthfulness” of their product. Sunkist’s 1938 coloring booklet, The Land of Oranges and Lemons was designed with mothers and teachers in mind. Mirroring the Jack and Jill trope, it depicts two children who visit their Uncle Jim, a worker in the Sunkist factory. Jim tours the children around as they learn about the people who contribute to their morning orange juice. Throughout the text, the advertisers extoll the health benefits of citrus and users are invited to chart their children’s height and weight on the last page. This collage series combines small watercolor collages based on drawings from the booklet with aspects of the citrus manufacturing process, contemporary and historical advertisements, as well as depictions of common ailments facing citrus today due to climate change and the increased prescience of pests. Although the booklet was created as a toy for children, the phrasing of the narrative has a different meaning in 2022. Uncle Jim tells the children “There is no rain in California in the summer. The water comes from the mountains,” foretelling that many of the challenges of growing citrus in the U.S. have been with us all along.

By the late 1930s the citrus growing market in the US had reached its pinnacle output and, wanting to capitalize profits, advertisers focused on the “healthfulness” of their product. Sunkist’s 1938 coloring booklet, The Land of Oranges and Lemons was designed with mothers and teachers in mind. Mirroring the Jack and Jill trope, it depicts two children who visit their Uncle Jim, a worker in the Sunkist factory. Jim tours the children around as they learn about the people who contribute to their morning orange juice. Throughout the text, the advertisers extoll the health benefits of citrus and users are invited to chart their children’s height and weight on the last page. This collage series combines small watercolor collages based on drawings from the booklet with aspects of the citrus manufacturing process, contemporary and historical advertisements, as well as depictions of common ailments facing citrus today due to climate change and the increased prescience of pests. Although the booklet was created as a toy for children, the phrasing of the narrative has a different meaning in 2022. Uncle Jim tells the children “There is no rain in California in the summer. The water comes from the mountains,” foretelling that many of the challenges of growing citrus in the U.S. have been with us all along.

Like most fruits, oranges and lemons are not indigenous to North America. Originally from what is today central-China, citrus is challenged by most climates but has done well domestically in the sun-filled regions of California, Arizona and Florida. As the industry grew through the twentieth century from individuals with a few backyard trees to factory farming on an industrial scale, so did the use of insecticides, herbicides and fungicides on a similarly massive scale. Some are used as a precaution, and some are used only when groves show signs of struggle. Currently in the U.S., citrus greening, spread by infected Asian citrus psyllid insects, is the biggest threat. Since the disease was first discovered in Florida in 2005, millions of acres of trees have died because there is no known cure– once a tree is infected it dies within years. Despite pesticides having no effect, in 2021, then-President Trump's EPA approved the pesticide aldicarb for use on citrus. Aldicarb is banned in many world nations because it is known to cause cancer in humans. This series contrasts citrus crate labels from the 1930s and 40s with the artists’ imagining of new labels for the ten most prominent pesticides used in citriculture. The new labels play with the layouts and fonts of the old and are meant to hide in plain sight, much as the poison we ingest as a byproduct of factory farming does. The photographic imagery in the new labels depicts citrus workers, in both historical and contemporary contexts who are exposed the most to these pesticides. 10% of sales from this series is donated to The Farmworker Association of Florida and Farmworker Justice (based in California), two nonprofits working to secure labor rights and health protections for citrus workers.

Like most fruits, oranges and lemons are not indigenous to North America. Originally from what is today central-China, citrus is challenged by most climates but has done well domestically in the sun-filled regions of California, Arizona and Florida. As the industry grew through the twentieth century from individuals with a few backyard trees to factory farming on an industrial scale, so did the use of insecticides, herbicides and fungicides on a similarly massive scale. Some are used as a precaution, and some are used only when groves show signs of struggle. Currently in the U.S., citrus greening, spread by infected Asian citrus psyllid insects, is the biggest threat. Since the disease was first discovered in Florida in 2005, millions of acres of trees have died because there is no known cure– once a tree is infected it dies within years. Despite pesticides having no effect, in 2021, then-President Trump's EPA approved the pesticide aldicarb for use on citrus. Aldicarb is banned in many world nations because it is known to cause cancer in humans. This series contrasts citrus crate labels from the 1930s and 40s with the artists’ imagining of new labels for the ten most prominent pesticides used in citriculture. The new labels play with the layouts and fonts of the old and are meant to hide in plain sight, much as the poison we ingest as a byproduct of factory farming does. The photographic imagery in the new labels depicts citrus workers, in both historical and contemporary contexts who are exposed the most to these pesticides. 10% of sales from this series is donated to The Farmworker Association of Florida and Farmworker Justice (based in California), two nonprofits working to secure labor rights and health protections for citrus workers.