Dawn Tan

One of my favourite artists I found online a year ago, Dawn Tan! If I'm not wrong, she's a Singaporean who lives in Melbourne. She loves food and most of her works revolve around food and food packaging. On her portfolio, she mentioned that "I create drawings and soft sculptures out of fabrics, choosing packaging I'm drawn to. But ultimately, the reason for creating food related art, comes from my intrigue with how packaged food is taking over natural, organic food. The idea of consumption becoming obsessive, how traditional made-from-scratch meals are now replaced often by instant colourful packaged food, serves as a basis for much of the work I create."

She did an 8-week food diary of what she ate everyday, as a personal response to what eating and consumption is all about. She used water colour as her medium. I like all her water colour paintings because her paintings are always kept simple, and she can make use of the same colour in different tones, creating different texture of the subject matter.

I guess the purpose of her work was to reflect on what she was eating in her everyday life and see if packaged food is taking over natural, organic food. I thought her works are very meaningful and it reflects much about her life and the world. I think it is important to make artworks that are meaningful to ourselves and the world. Everytime I go to her blog and see her new works, it makes me more motivated to do art more meaningfully instead of doing it just because I have to get it done.

Also, she works as an art teacher and opened up art classes for kids and adults. I thought it was something meaningful and at the same time, allows her to earn a living. She made me realise how wonderful it is to be an art educator, spreading the "goodness" of art to little children!

She teaches children and adults art that is related to food, which is in-line with what she does as an artist. It is inspiring to see an artist not only do art but teaching others art and food. I think it brings much more meaning to what she does and I am glad that there are such artists around the world!

Photo credits:

http://www.dawn-tan.com/

http://hand-made-love.blogspot.com/