Make art from lunch.

May 16, 2009 in Make 10

Every single meal cries out for artfulness.

I learned it from Daddy, whose canvas was pancakes.

Can you form a name from cheese? From carrots? From mustard and ketchup on your veggie dog? Can a banana become a cause for celebration? I think so. It takes just an instant. It makes smiles.

37days Make 10 Challenge: Make art from lunch

How can even lunchtime be fun? Even if you're only doing it for yourself, cut that PB&J into your first initial. Arrange your carrots into exclamation points. Make those asparagus tips into a wee fort. Have some rambunctious fun with those radishes. When given the chance (and you have that chance at every meal), why not choose art?

(and send me a photo of your creation! patti at pattidigh dot com)

About Patti Digh

Patti Digh is an author, speaker, and educator who builds learning communities and gets to the heart of difficult topics. Her work over the last three decades has focused on diversity, inclusion, social justice, and living and working mindfully. She has developed diversity strategies and educational programming for major nonprofit and corporate organizations and has been a featured speaker at many national and international conferences.

7 comments to " Make art from lunch. "


Jan Richards

May 16, 2009 AT 11:36AM

Very fun idea, Patti!

Hmmm…what will be the canvas today…

leah

May 16, 2009 AT 3:54PM

this made me smile!!

jodi cohen

May 16, 2009 AT 6:55PM

i once waitressed with a guy named bob who was a dishwasher. when it was slow he would take the pancake batter and make me pancakes in the shape of bunnies. i always remember this, as a specific kindness. i hope someday to make some wild pancakes for TFFMMHead.

Kim

May 17, 2009 AT 8:51AM

I do this with my son too, often at different holiday times he asks for a certain character and it can be challenging, but fun and we always have a laugh. Oh yeah, he usually eats everything on the plate too.

Grandma Gina

May 17, 2009 AT 10:08PM

Thanks for sharing, especially Tess’s picture. When my daughters were young, but beyond the lunch box age, they still wanted Mom to pack lunches every day. My artistic talent runs more to piano and hand bells, and I don’t do much with paints. However, every school lunch bag had some kind of sketch, and I owe the success entirely to Ed Emberley’s drawing books for beginning artists.

I’ve discovered now that those same pictures are once again traveling to school or to summer day camp on brown bags, and the source is still the Emberley books.

I hope everybody is willing to invest the time to make lunch special.

Caren

May 18, 2009 AT 12:12PM

I’ve heard more and more people talk about packing bento boxes, which require artful arranging & consideration for aesthetics – none of the *sites* about bento boxes are as appealing as the boxes themselves, but google images provided some fun views: http://tinyurl.com/pkd59x

I was surprised how pleased both boys were (they’re 16 and 10) when I spelled their names with icing on some turnovers I made the other day.

kim (lunasoul)

May 20, 2009 AT 8:27AM

Here’s a good bento site: http://justbento.com/

Lots of vegan/vegetarian bento recipes, and links to bento related sites.