Favi's Cocina 9

This print is 1 in a limited edition suite of 14 limited prints that celebrate my deep connection to my kitchen, to my garden and to all the foods that I prepare. I consider myself a culture keeper of ancestral food knowledge. I believe I’ve been blessed with unique abilities in my mouth and in my gut which allow me to tap into the true essence of different kinds of food from different cultures. I love tasting food and then using my taste buds to identify the elements in a dish, so that I can later replicate it with my own approach.

My friends and family who have tasted my food will tell you that it’s been an amazing and transformative experience. This is because I pour my love into my food, while also trying to connect with each ingredient. I enjoy knowing where each seed, spice and vegetable variety comes from. I try to imagine what it was like for ancestors to come up with the unique dishes that I get to recreate today.

I love learning about and continuing food traditions. Among my favorite dishes are veggie curries, ramen, baba ganoush, hummus, lasagna and all kinds of bean dishes. Food is an extension of my artistry and a part of my creative practice.

In 2020, shortly after the pandemic began, I started doing small pop-up dining experiences where I cooked very special dishes while dressed in sexy clothing or with no clothing at all besides my underwear. As an artist, I view my role as that of a culture keeper - one who studies and continues our ancestral cultures. Therefore, when it comes to food, I try to learn as much as I can to prepare foods authentically and respectfully.

I love growing my own food too. I create dishes with the ingredients that the Earth gives us. I feel that particular ingredients awaken parts of our bodies that allow us to remember and heal. I like to think of myself as a messenger for those elements and for those life forms, because they are from the Earth, they are alive and they enter our bodies and nourish us. Cooking means keeping alive a cultural language that’s about relationships, a relationship to what comes out of the ground and a relationship between the cook and those who digest the food.

This series of prints incorporates drawings, scans, textures and elements that were created via screen printing and linoblock printing. Each collage is full of meticulous detail and combining of individual pieces.