Fruits & Vegetables as Unique & Gorgeous Art

We at Vegan American Princess love to continually learn more about being vegan by looking at it through a prism and watching all the different rainbows of color shoot out! We see the vegan world from so many different angles and perspectives that anything that inspires us provides a fascinating topic to explore. We love to be surprised and delighted when we come across the unusual—who doesn’t? When I saw an article in American Lifestyle magazine, about an artist that actually makes gorgeous and unusual artwork from fruits and vegetables, I knew this was an angle I had never seen and that I needed to know more.

Utilizing fruits and vegetables to create three-dimensional pieces to be admired or worn as an object of beauty is truly putting the foods we eat on a pedestal.  Margaret Dorfman creates unique bowls and jewelry from over 40 different varieties of fresh fruits and vegetables. The process involves curing, drying, pressing and aging the fruits and vegetables in a 10-14 day time period.  The only way to really understand what these works of art are is to see them…

She calls the result of her process “vegetable parchment,” in which the magnificent colors and elegant structures that are characteristic of each fruit or vegetable are preserved. The process began when she was “slicing vegetables for dinner one night and saw the light come though a thin piece of zucchini…[She] immediately started thinking of ways to hold and preserve this beauty.”

We typically see fruits, vegetables and plants as the source of our sustenance—after all, as vegans especially, this is what we consume to nourish our bodies and stay healthy and alive.  But Margaret Dorfman takes a much closer look at these beautiful gems of nature, never taking the rich glowing colors or the complex structures for granted, as we commonly do. To comprehend her rich insight into the ubiquitous world of the Produce Dept., she explains:

 “Bok choy is reminiscent of marble with its dark and creamy white striations.  Pear has a sandpaper feel contrasted by smooth, shiny skin. The subtle shading of orange to flame-colored orange red in a Mexican papaya always reminded me of a sunset. Broccoli looks like a moss green miniature forest of tiny trees. Beet has a burgundy color that almost glows, and the rich saturated reds and yellows in bell peppers look almost like colored vinyl.”

 Not only does she create bowls that are surprisingly sturdy and can hold small items and edibles, she uses the same drying process to form her jewelry.  For the necklaces and cuffs, she looks “at how the colors and patterns of the different fruits and vegetables work together to make a visually compelling composition.” The jewelry, which is water resistant, is glazed with a sturdy protective coating and annealed to copper.

When asked about her interest in sustainability and being eco-friendly, Dorfman responds by saying, “Because my work celebrates the natural world, it seems especially important that everything involved with making the vessels and jewelry be as green as possible.”  Small farms and farmer’s markets provide her with the source for her materials and all leftovers are composted, recycled or donated. To start the process, she uses an old-fashioned mandoline slicer, a few exotic Japanese tolls and a “wickedly sharp assortment of knives.”

She has been creating art using “elements from the natural world” for 13 years and she sees herself continuing and developing new ideas and projects, earning a living doing something she enjoys and being surprised by the colors and variation of her subjects on a daily basis. The enchantment of her art is that she is “uncovering what was always there, waiting to be seen.”

On Margaret Dorfman’s website, www.margaretdorfman.com, you will find a gallery that shows a true rainbow of pieces, as well as a list of retail stores where her bowls and jewelry can be admired and purchased.  Selected pieces of her jewelry can be purchased online through a website called Uncommon Goods, which features unique, creative and mindful gifts.

After seeing how beautiful fruits and vegetables really are through the art of Margaret Dorfman, a stroll through the farmer’s market will never be the same!

Enjoy,

Ellen

xox

Ellen