Secret Ingredient

As I am interested in this blog being about food and art (ideally food-related art), it is about time I’ve posted something more on the art side of things.

In my current occupation as a Peace Corps volunteer it is all too easy to feel disconnected from the “art scene” as I knew it back in the states. Recently a friend and fellow artist sent me a call for entries to a show she is curating, titled “Bricoleur-ing: An inquiry into the profundity and resourcefulness of Female Transformateurs” and I felt compelled to participate. I am hoping against hope that the mail system will work for me this time (I have gotten discouraged by the amount of mail that was sent and never seen again).

“Secret Ingredient”

Materials used: 3 wooden spoons, coffee, spices, gouache



I create my idea of home in no small part through food. I collect and trade recipes with friends and neighbors, spending many hours in their kitchens and they in mine. It is more so here than in America that the woman's social life revolves around the kitchen. The man is presented the space of the salon, as the woman prepares the meal. As a guest I am usually offered the salon, but try to make my way into the kitchen as soon as possible. This is where the action is happening-- Bread is freshly baked in the home on an almost daily basis. Food is prepared from fresh and whole ingredients.

There is no question the influence that Morocco is having an influence on how I create my home space- both in acts of assimilation as well as a heightening of characteristics that make me distinctly foreign. My behavior in the kitchen is my barometer of these changes. Food is the easiest cultural exchange for me