Funky Food Art Promotes Healthy Eating

We love these funky posters made from vegetable collages by our friend and colleague Lee Svitak Dean. When Lee isn’t busy designing her posters, which are targeted primarily to preteens and teens to promote healthy eating, she’s Editor of the Taste section of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis.

“These are part of my Eat Smart series of posters,” Lee says. “Each has the phrase "Eat Smart" at the bottom, along with a kind of game -- "Find the Produce," with a listing of all the items in the picture. I try to reflect in the posters that food can -- and should be -- fun.”

All eight posters in the series will be featured through July 30 at Corazon Gallery, 1026 Washington Ave. S., Minneapolis.  If you can’t make it to Minneapolis, you can view the posters on Lee’s website (click here).

Making such intricate designs from fresh food is challenging to say the least.

“Each poster takes about 4 hours to build and has a shelf-life of about 30 minutes before the produce has wilted,” Lee says. “The nonperishable items are used first (usually in the faces), with the fresh produce put on at the last minute before the image is photographed.”

Lee works with a creative team to produce the actual collages. “I am not the one putting the seeds in place (well, not usually; I did for American Gothic). I am the one coming up with the idea, the text, the image that we use. Then I supervise the "portrait" and make changes as needed. We always need to adapt as the image is being built.”

Some challenges are harder than others, like how to fit the Statue of Liberty’s arm inside the poster's boundaries and how to style Michelle Obama’s hair.

“For Michelle, the big challenge was that she changes the look of her hair so frequently. I try to use iconic images so they are recognizable instantly with kids. But Michelle changes her look so often that it was difficult to find the right image for inspiration. I went with the sophisticated, yet "motherly" version of her hair, which seemed to suit the crowd it was aimed for (that being kids). But note, she's got bare arms -- which is definitely her signature look. Also note she has eye shadow of carefully placed red cabbage.”

Lee, who has served as the de facto art director for the award-winning pages of Taste for the past 15 years, says she tries to have layers of fun with the posters.

“For George Washington, I had a cherry for his nose and the phrase was "I cannot tell a lie." For Michelle, her pearl necklace and earrings are made of pearl onions.

“I have to say that I LOVE these posters. I have great fun producing them (and I'm always thinking about new ones to do). And they are great at conveying the message to eat well.”

The posters are $14.95 and can be ordered from the educational materials company that distributes them, Learning ZoneXpress. Access the company through Lee’s website.

Thanks so much for sharing Lee! Do you have any food-related art that you’d like to share here on Kitchen Scoop? Let us know and maybe we’ll feature yours on this site, too!