a wilted bok choy story

I brainstormed the idea of turning the vegetable into a midi skirt for a ballerina. I focused on sustainability in this portfolio and used patterns from a vegetable as my inspiration to explore artistic concepts. When the bok choy is peeled, the bottom half of the vegetable looks like a spoon, which is why people call them a soup spoon. The leaves are soft and flimsy, making them very delicate. I envisioned the bok choy as a fish or a waterfall, along with many other ideas. Eventually, I came across the concept of peeling some of the leaves off and using them as a paintbrush.

Firstly, I dug through the scraps from my art studio, found a semi-thick wooden stick, and used it as my paintbrush shaft. Next, I tore each piece off and pinched the base of the bok choy's bulbous bottom to wrap around the wooden stick (20mm diameter), completing the paintbrush structure. Lastly, I tried using different materials such as the tape, string, and yarn to wrap the leaves around the wooden shaft, and after much trial and error, nothing held the leaves together well enough besides the masking tape. After assembling all of my materials, I let my mind go free and started painting. It was a challenge to keep the leaf still as it flopped in different directions when I glided the leaves across the Canson paper. Beyond the precise details and lines on the vegetable, I considered using the bok choy leaf to create broader strokes using acrylic paint and water. Yet, to communicate my ideas thoroughly, I used ink to draw vein-like details on one of the leaves to show that this is still a vegetable. The overall experience of this project has given me a healthy understanding of how creative I can be with limited tools and learn how to use them efficiently.