Art: Martin’s Produce Wholesale, Roanoke: An Ode to Tomatoes, Tobacco, and the Beautiful Burden of Getting By

Look closely at this painting. No, really look. See that man in the yellow cardigan and “Red Man” cap? He’s not just picking tomatoes—he’s auditioning them. Judging them. Weighing their worth like a produce god in a Food Lion Olympus. You’d think he was holding his own heart.

Welcome to Martin’s Produce Wholesale, Roanoke, a watercolor love letter to every guy who ever stacked fruit at 5:00 a.m., took a smoke break at 5:15, and paid off the last $17 of his Ford pickup at 5:30.

Painted by Anne Bell—who, let’s be honest, deserves a damn medal for capturing such stoic masculinity without ever once idealizing it—this piece is a quietly revolutionary act. Forget your Monet water lilies and your Rothko color walls. Bell gives us something far more radical: a working man. Not abstract, not mythologized—just there, heavy with years, cradling tomatoes like they owe him child support.

And look at that face: lined, tired, maybe slightly annoyed that you’re staring at him while he’s trying to get through his day without bruising a single heirloom. He is all of us. Tired. Alert. Sober but hoping not for long.

The background says Martin’s Produce Wholesale, Roanoke, which is either a real place or the most heartbreakingly specific metaphor for a forgotten America this side of a Bruce Springsteen b-side. There’s a sweetness to it all—a community, a rhythm, a commitment to doing things right. But there’s also the undertone of a slow decay, like a tomato left too long in the bin. Vine-ripe, yes—but for how much longer?

This isn’t Norman Rockwell. Bell doesn’t ask you to smile. She dares you to respect. Respect the grind, the dirt, the dull glory of small-town commerce. Respect the men who make sure your BLT doesn’t taste like a tragedy.

When did we stop seeing poetry in the produce aisle?

Because Anne Bell sure didn’t.

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