Transforming Waste into Art: Food Magic's Sustainable Paint Project Inspires Creative Environmental Solutions

Industrial design professor Dr. Yoon Choi’s team of researchers recently exhibited some artwork at the New Visions exhibition in Alexandria, VA hosted by Virginia Tech’s Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT) and the City of Alexandria’s Office of the Arts.  The exhibited artwork was part of an ICAT-funded research project–Sustainable Art Painting–which explores making pigments and paints from food waste. The artworks exhibited, Spirit of the Earth, and Dream of the Earth, were painted entirely from watercolor paints that the project team created from food waste and were on display at the Hilton Mark Center Hotel from November 4th, 2023, through February 25th, 2024. 

The goal of their larger project, titled “Food Magic” is two-fold: first, to design a system that transforms food waste into paint for school audiences; and second, to raise awareness, educate, and inspire a radical rethinking of food consumption, use, and recycling within the local community.  The interdisciplinary team, led by Dr. Choi, is co-led by School of Visual Arts professor Hiromi Okumura, industrial design professor Brook Kennedy, and Sustainable Biomaterials professor Dr. Young-Teck Kim, and is composed of graduate architecture student Avery Gendell and industrial design students Farida Hanna, Camille D’Amico, and Royce Childress.  Together, the Food Magic team learned how to extract pigments from different sources of food waste like corn husks, orange peels, onion skins, and more, and process these pigments into all-natural watercolor paints.  They are now using this process to guide the design and development of their holistic system which guides users through all stages of the paint-making process from the collection of food waste through the production of usable watercolors.  

Using the paints the team produced, Professor Okumura and Avery collaboratively created the two artworks to demonstrate the overlooked value and beauty in food waste that would otherwise end up in a landfill.  As they noted in their artist’s statement, “We recognize the need for humans to return to a symbiotic relationship with the world around us.” In efforts to reflect such a need and further center the value of the natural world’s provisions, the artists painted Spirit of the Earth using only natural instruments like leaves, twigs, rocks, flowers, and seed pods. 

In addition to exhibiting their artwork, the Food Magic team has engaged in extensive outreach with the local community, hosting hands-on educational workshop sessions with young students.  Through the workshops, the team uses their system to educate students on food waste, sustainability, painting, and paint-making while also taking the opportunity to learn from the students themselves as users of their system.  

The Food Magic team hopes that their system, artwork, and outreach inspire students and community members to embrace the opportunities of sustainable practices and help drive a new generation of creative problem-solving.  To learn more about their project, visit their website at foodmagic.org.