How to Use Food for Art

Food can be used to create many different types of art. They can be used for sculptures, 3-D pictures, as the paint medium (food dye) and many more. Below is just one way to use food for art. The instructions below will guide your creation of a pineapple alligator sculpture. See the resources section for a link to a list of several art projects that use food as the medium.

Things You'll Need

  • 2 pineapples
  • red radish
  • 2 small black olives
  • butternut squash
  • allspice berry
  • 2 kiwis
  • sharp chef's knife
  • sharp paring knife
  • fine-gauge florist's wire
  • toothpicks
  • sturdy spoon

Instructions

    • 1

      Cut the pineapples lengthwise and remove the flesh of the fruit. Be sure to remove most but not so much that the skin collapses. Make sure the skin can still form a dome.

    • 2

      Arrange the pineapple halves in a line with the two smallest pieces at either end and the largest pieces in the middle. Trim the end pieces to create the desired shape for the head and tail. Slice the head piece lengthwise about quarter of the way in to form the mouth. Join the pieces together using florist's wire. Make a U shape with the wire and poke either ends of the wire through the bottom of one pineapple half and through to the adjacent pineapple piece. Tie the ends together to hold both pieces. Do the same for the other two remaining halves.

    • 3

      Cut a radish in half, with one half slightly bigger than the other. Cut a slice off the larger half and set aside. Attach the radishes to the "head" with toothpicks, with the white flesh part facing out. Attach the olives to the radishes, making sure the toothpicks don't poke all the way through the olives but through enough so that the olives are securely on the radish.

    • 4

      Cut a large slice of butternut squash and trim into the shape of a fish. Attach the allspice berry to the radish slice and attach both to the fish to form the fish's eye. Put the fish in the mouth of the alligator.

    • 5

      Cut the kiwis in half and cut out two small triangles from each to form the claws. Align two kiwis to each side of the alligator and poke toothpicks from the inside of the pineapple hollows and through the kiwis to hold them in place.

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