Advisor: Toby Buonagurio

I had no clear plan as to what direction I wanted to go in when starting my independent study. The only thing that I knew for sure was that I wanted to create something that represented my personality as well as my passions. I sometimes find myself not taking my own art seriously because I tend to lean towards creating more “cute” subject matter, but I wanted to show the contrast between cuteness and intricacy in my pieces. This desire is what led me to mashing together two of my favorite things: food and animals. 

Every aspect of my sculptures are intricate, ranging from each hand-rolled grain of rice on my sculpted sushi to the meticulously carved strawberries on my cake piece. Opposite the complex nature of the food, I created carefully carved animals that are, in my opinion, extremely cute. Cuteness has played a role in my life for as long as I can remember and it was something that was crucial for me to add to my independent study sculptures. To add another fun element to my artworks, I decided to make their titles a bit comical with the cake being titled “Strawbeary Shortcake” and the bento/ramen “Yakisobear,” a play-on-words of “yakisoba,” another Japanese dish.

I am so proud of the sculptures that I produced for my independent study and I am incredibly excited to continue my series of cute food art. I plan to create several more artworks in this style and to continue improving my skills.

Title: Strawbeary Shortcake, Date: October 2022, Dimensions: 12 x 11 x 11 inches

Title: Yakisobear, Date: December 2022, Dimensions: 7 x 22 x 12 inches