Food Pop Art — Texas Beverages & Munchies

This collection is that food and drink painted and drawn as art by the Crum family in Fort Worth, Texas, for the kitchens, bars and game rooms where the subject matter is usually already in the refrigerator.

Food Pop Art From Texas, Not a Reproduced Ad

Pop art food has a long history of taking the everyday thing off the shelf and putting it on the wall. Texas gives that idea better material. Betsy Crum's Dr Pepper Warhol grid and Big Red grid run the two state sodas through the repeat-and-recolor treatment; her Topo Chico grid does the same for the mineral water half of Texas drinks by the case. Caya Crum goes the other direction and paints the snacks like Old Masters: Topo Chico card sharps with a Whataburger bag on the table, a calico cat and a Whataburger, and the Texas Essentials pantry shelf painted with the seriousness other people save for fruit bowls. None of it is a reproduced advertisement. Every print here began as an original painting or drawing.

Texas Snacks and Texas Drinks, Wall by Wall

The drinks come first because Texans argue about them. Dr Pepper, born in Waco, gets its own Dr Pepper art page and shows up here as the 10-2-4 bottle, a stairway of cans and a neon raccoon who has clearly had one too many. Topo Chico runs from a line-drawn bottle to a Lotería El Corazón to a West Texas sunset in a glass. Then the beer art: nine Lone Star cans, a Lone Star in a red cowboy hat, Pearl, and a Shiner under a blue sky. The snacks hold their own: Parker County peaches, an avocado on a chinoiserie plate, and a Coca-Cola refresco for the border towns.

Where Food Wall Art Belongs

Food art prints do their best work in the rooms where people eat and pour. Small squares in a grid over a coffee bar, one big can behind the bar cart, a beer print in the game room, a soda grid in the dorm. Because the subjects are objects rather than scenes, they hang next to almost anything: a Topo Chico beside a cowboy, a Dr Pepper beside a bluebonnet, and the wall still makes sense.

Questions

What is Texas food pop art?

Pop art that takes the food and drink Texans actually buy, Dr Pepper, Big Red, Topo Chico, Lone Star, Shiner, Whataburger, Dairy Queen, peaches from Parker County, and treats it the way pop art has always treated soup cans: repeated, recolored, enlarged, or painted with a straight face. At Crum Art every piece starts as an original by Betsy, Caya, Carl or Tavi Crum.

Which food print makes the best Texas gift?

Pick the thing the person drinks. A Dr Pepper grid for the office fridge loyalist, a Topo Chico for anyone who keeps a case in the trunk, a Lone Star or Pearl for the bar, Big Red for the Waco and San Antonio relatives. Food art is personal without being risky, which is why it does so well as a housewarming gift.

Is this kitchen art or bar art?

Both, depending on the subject. The snacks and sodas lean kitchen; the beer and mineral water lean bar. The kitchen wall art page gathers the food side with the corn dogs and hot dogs, and bar cart art gathers the after-five shift.

Thirsty for more: Dr Pepper art honors Waco's finest, bar cart art handles the bar, kitchen wall art covers the food that goes with all of it, and the Field Guide to Texas Food Pop Art maps the whole menu. Most of these prints sit comfortably in Texas wall art under $100.