For as long as I can remember, I have made my work through studying materials. I can’t rest until a medium has been so altered and manipulated that it is virtually unrecognizable and completely my own. So, when the world turned upside down and I learned I would be making most of my work digitally this term, I felt a little lost. I wasn’t sure how to make art without physical materials, the compass I usually used to guide me. Despite this, I spent seven weeks working digitally and developed a whole new process and style. Although I enjoyed this change, I couldn’t help but feel like without my messy, experimental process, my work was different. It wasn’t until recently that I realized in a way, I had been working the same way I always have this whole time. Adapting and working with what I have until my work feels completely my own.
My favorite restaurant as a kid was a sushi place at the South Shore Mall called Wasabi. I always ordered the same thing: a peanut butter and jelly bento box and a strawberry Ramune. Inside the bento box, there were six tiny peanut butter and jelly sandwiches rolled into cylinders to look like sushi and a serving of plain, white rice. Although peanut butter and jelly and rice wasn’t something I would have put together myself, the combination made a surprisingly great pair. Like the bento boxes at Wasabi, the two styles, digital and sculptural, shown in my exhibit work together in an odd way to perfectly represent my time in Senior Studio.
Annika Hardy
Peanut Butter and Rice