Irvin Lin is a San Francisco based cookbook author, food writer, photographer, recipe developer, and blogger. Though he’s always been obsessed with food, few folks know that he actually has a long sordid history in ceramics and arts, dating back to the 5th grade where he took a summer art class. His grade school teacher gave him a B for his hand-built clay dragon sculpture.
Lin dabbled in ceramics again in sophomore year of high school during a sculpture class where he made wobbly thick pots on the wheel, suitable for bludgeoning weapons. He did not touch clay again for 27 years, though his short, squat and heavy vessels sat proudly on his parent’s book shelf for years until they moved and were subsequently “lost” in transition.
After graduating from college with dual degrees in English and Painting, Lin was sidetracked by having to figure out a way to pay the rent and became a graphic designer and art director, focusing on branding, print, packaging and environmental design. If you go into any Ben and Jerry’s scoop shop and they have a wooden menu board system, know that you are looking at his design work.
Lin left the design world in 2010 to pursue food writing and photography with his nationally recognized blog Eat the Love. In 2016, the New York Times picked his cookbook Marbled, Swirled and Layered as one of seven best baking cookbooks of the year. 2016 was also the year he became tired of searching for the perfect plate to photograph food on. So, he took a continuing education ceramic class at a local community college assuming he could easily make his own prop plates and bowls. He was wrong. He produced a whole lot of garbage work in that class, but he became hooked on pottery.
He continues to pursue his ceramic work in tandem with his food related projects. He is most interested in the intersection of functionalware (plates, bowls, cups and vessels that are used to serve food and beverage) and art pieces that stand on their own. Though he is only just starting down his journey with clay and creating his visual language, he draws on both his Asian heritage, his own food photography skill set and his history of painting to create unique work that both highlights the food placed on them, as well as look beautiful on their own.
Lin is currently not selling his ceramic work, though he does occasionally make commissioned pieces for fellow food photographers, bloggers and other food-related industry folks. You can reach out to him if you’d like to commission him for some work. He does plans on selling a limited run of work in the Fall of 2019 and after that, releasing work twice a year in batches.
You can follow his work on his dedicated ceramic Instagram account or visit his blog Eat the Love and food Instagram account to see his ceramic work in use.