{"id":23081,"date":"2022-08-03T18:57:27","date_gmt":"2022-08-03T18:57:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/?p=23081&post_type=story"},"modified":"2022-08-05T20:39:39","modified_gmt":"2022-08-05T20:39:39","slug":"why-i-paint-food","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/why-i-paint-food\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I Paint Food"},"content":{"rendered":"

Picture it. Miami, 1995.<\/p>\n

I wake up to the smell of pancakes as my\u00a0abuelita<\/em> (grandmother) starts cooking the\u00a0first batch. Seeing my curiosity, she pulls\u00a0up a stool so I can see what she is making\u00a0as my siblings continue to slumber. I close\u00a0my eyes and I breathe in the sweet aroma\u00a0while the heat from the gas stove warms\u00a0my face. She taps me on the shoulder and\u00a0motions for me to flip the pancakes with\u00a0the spatula.<\/p>\n

It is memories like this one that remind\u00a0me of why I paint food.<\/p>\n

My abuelita instilled a love of food and\u00a0art as far back as I can remember, which led me to pursue a career as a pastry chef.\u00a0I was able to combine my two passions as\u00a0I created cakes and other sweets that were\u00a0both visually appealing and appetizing.<\/p>\n

Believe it or not, being a pastry chef is\u00a0both mentally and physically demanding,\u00a0especially working in hotel kitchens.\u00a0Instead of frosting 12 cupcakes like you\u00a0do at home, I was frosting 1,200 cupcakes,\u00a0converting recipes depending on the\u00a0amount of people in the group, and\u00a0carrying 50-pound bags of flour from the\u00a0storeroom to the pastry kitchen. It was\u00a0hectic, it was demanding, but I loved every\u00a0second of it.<\/p>\n

Then, I got injured.<\/p>\n

It was several injuries that caught up\u00a0with me from overusing my arms. The\u00a0doctor told me that I could continue\u00a0working in my cherished profession and\u00a0need corrective surgery that may never\u00a0truly fix the issue, or I could leave that\u00a0career and rehabilitate my arms. I chose\u00a0the latter.<\/p>\n

I decided to go back to school for a BFA\u00a0in graphic design<\/a>, and in doing so, took\u00a0my first painting elective. It was not until\u00a0my second painting class that I started\u00a0painting food.<\/p>\n

I finally felt like myself again.<\/p>\n

Initially, by painting pastries, I was able to fill the void that my previous career left behind. I used my knowledge of textures from the desserts I had created in the pastry kitchen and applied them to recreate those same textures on a flat surface for visual indulgence in my paintings. This led me to be interested in color and light as well as exploring paint quality. As I began to pursue my MFA\u00a0in studio art and design<\/a>, I found myself\u00a0subconsciously choosing imagery that\u00a0related to my personal life.<\/p>\n

My abuelita passed away while I was\u00a0pursuing this degree, which is where a\u00a0shift in my work occurs. Although we did\u00a0not speak the same language, she and I\u00a0both loved and appreciated food and art.\u00a0It is to her that I dedicated my final MFA\u00a0thesis as she patiently pushed me in this\u00a0direction but was unable to see me cross\u00a0the finish line.<\/p>\n

It was her passing that drove me\u00a0to find deeper meaning in my work\u00a0and the materials I was using. I began\u00a0experimenting with different paints,\u00a0including making my own paint with\u00a0edible ingredients, which did not work out.\u00a0Finally, I tried painting with oil paint, and\u00a0the connection was instant. Oil paint was\u00a0my abuelita\u2019s chosen medium for painting\u00a0images of her homeland, Cuba. It also\u00a0reminded me of the buttery texture of the\u00a0buttercream I used when frosting cakes as\u00a0a pastry chef.<\/p>\n

My work shifted from sweets to raw\u00a0meat and then to feeling disconnected\u00a0with my family\u2019s culture With my\u00a0abuelita\u2019s passing, I lost my last direct\u00a0connection to Cuba. Although my parents\u00a0were born there, they were both young\u00a0when they came to the United States. This\u00a0realization provided the urgency I needed\u00a0to create Florida Noche Buena<\/em>, in which I\u00a0am discussing transculturation and where\u00a0I lie in the midst as American born and of\u00a0Cuban descent.<\/p>\n

\"Annette

Florida Noche Buena, 2020, oil and acrylic on canvas, 30″ x 72″<\/p><\/div>\n

Nothing brings people together like\u00a0food, and I have so many memories that\u00a0involve food with the people who are most\u00a0important to me. To this day, the smell of\u00a0pancakes takes me back to sleeping over\u00a0at my abuelita\u2019s house.<\/p>\n

So why do I paint food? I paint food\u00a0because it is one of my passions and a\u00a0universal language in the sense that we\u00a0all eat. It is a passion that stems from\u00a0bonding with my abuelita, despite our\u00a0language barrier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":23264,"template":"","categories":[1000],"tags":[341,1452],"class_list":["post-23081","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-why-i","tag-college-of-arts-and-humanities","tag-ucf-alumni","issues-1575","issues-fall-2022"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy I Paint Food: UCF Alum on How Culture, Former Career Inspires Art<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pastry chef turned artist Annette Tojar \u201918 \u201921MFA \ufeffshares how her culture and former career has inspired her work, which often focuses on food.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/why-i-paint-food\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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