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Exploring Paint Through Spices, Powders, and Sauces

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Painting with Flavour: How Spices, Seasonings, and Sauces Stir My Thoughts and Feelings

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Painting with Flavour: How Spices, Seasonings, and Sauces Stir My Thoughts and Feelings

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Dear Paint of Spices, Seasonings and Sauces,

You didn’t come from a store.
You came from kitchens, from food,
from faraway places I may never see.
You travelled through time,
carried by people, ships, and stories.

Today, you are here with me.
I don’t know what you will do.
You are strong, soft, sticky, and full of smell.

You mix and move in ways I can’t control.

When I touch you,
I remember warm meals,
family, and feelings I can’t explain.

You make me want to play,
to wonder, to try something new.

You don’t stay in lines.
You drip, slide, stain, and surprise me.

That’s okay.
We are learning together.
You are not just paint.
You are memory, feeling, and change.

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Paint can choreograph encounters, these pigments, textures, and smells acted as collaborators in the process.

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A collection of materials I brought: chilli sauce, turmeric powder, cinnamon sugar, curry powder, cocoa powder, chilli powder, paprika, maple syrup, Italian herb, ground roasted rice, green tea, and mustard.

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A collection of materials I brought: chilli sauce, turmeric powder, cinnamon sugar, curry powder, cocoa powder, chilli powder, paprika, maple syrup, Italian herb, ground roasted rice, green tea, and mustard.

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I brought spices, sauces, powders, and paint to explore how different materials interact through colour, texture, and smell. Inspired by Pacini-Ketchabaw et al. (2016), I wanted to move away from traditional painting techniques and instead let the materials take the lead, inviting sensory exploration and allowing unexpected discoveries to emerge through touch, movement, and play.

As someone who enjoys cooking, these ingredients were already familiar to me, but I had never thought about how they might affect me outside the kitchen. This experiment made me wonder: what happens when I combine flavours and colours that don’t usually belong together? What will they create? How each might they feel on my skin, smell in the air, or taste on my tongue? What memories or emotions might they awaken? By engaging with these everyday materials in new ways, I began to understand how painting, as Pacini-Ketchabaw et al. (2016) describes, is not just about applying colour, but about forming relationships between bodies, materials, and space. These moments of exploration are shared in the reflections below.

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In this quiet moment, I sat with the materials, letting them guide my hands, thoughts, and attention. I was focused, curious, and present during the exploration.

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Spicy, sweet, earthy, sharp, all blending together and activating my senses.

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Spicy, sweet, earthy, sharp, all blending together and activating my senses.

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As I opened each jar and packet, the smells filled the space. I noticed that turmeric had a strong earthy scent, cinnamon sugar was sweet and familiar, and mustard was sharp and surprising. Each smell hit my nose differently and brought different feelings, comfort, warmth, curiosity. I even sneezed a lot! I felt my body reacting to the materials physically and mentally before I even touched them. This connects to Pacini-Ketchabaw et al.'s (2016) idea of materials inviting us to respond affectively, that painting is not just about sight or touch but about “assemblages” of bodies, senses, and materials acting together. These smells invited me to dive in and play.

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I became curious about taste. I touched the materials to my tongue, one by one. The sweet, spicy, bitter, and salty flavours surprised me and deepened the connection to each material.

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I became curious about taste. I touched the materials to my tongue, one by one. The sweet, spicy, bitter, and salty flavours surprised me and deepened the connection to each material.

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I decided to taste some of the materials, not as food, but as part of the experience. Cinnamon sugar melted sweetly on my tongue, while chilli powder left a sharp sting. Cocoa powder was bitter, and maple syrup coated my mouth with sweetness.

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I started to mix different powders and sauces using brushes and fingers. Some were dry and soft, while others were sticky and hard to control. Mixing created new colours and unexpected textures.

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I started to mix different powders and sauces using brushes and fingers. Some were dry and soft, while others were sticky and hard to control. Mixing created new colours and unexpected textures.

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I began mixing the materials, and I noticed how each one reacted differently. Curry powder and cocoa were soft and easy to blend. Chilli sauce made things slippery and messy, while mustard stuck thickly to my fingers. The roasted rice felt rough and crumbly, resisting smooth motion. When I combined them, they formed new shades and textures, sometimes beautiful, sometimes strange. I was surprised by how quickly some powders absorbed moisture and clumped, while others stayed separate. These interactions reminded me that “paint invites forces to interact and interfere with each other” (Pacini-Ketchabaw et al., 2016). At that moment, I realised the materials weren’t passive, they shaped what I could do.

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My fingers became part of the painting tool.

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My fingers became part of the painting tool.

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Using my hands instead of brushes made the process feel more personal. I was not just applying the material, I was moving with it, reacting to it. The maple syrup was sticky and smooth, making my fingers glide differently. Paprika mixed with cinnamon sugar created a strange scent and gritty feel. Sometimes the mixture surprised me and made me smile; other times it felt strange or uncomfortable. I didn’t plan what I was making, it felt like I was improvising.

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The materials stuck, slid, and sometimes fell apart. In that moment, it felt like the paints and I were working together, co-creating the unknown.

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The materials stuck, slid, and sometimes fell apart. In that moment, it felt like the paints and I were working together, co-creating the unknown.

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This poem emerged during the exploration, capturing the moments and emotions I experienced along the way.

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This poem emerged during the exploration, capturing the moments and emotions I experienced along the way.

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The ingredients felt alive in my hands, gritty, sticky, and smooth. I noticed how the sauces slipped, powders clung, and spices resisted. The messiness was part of the play, connecting me to the materials in a personal way. 

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The ingredients felt alive in my hands, gritty, sticky, and smooth. I noticed how the sauces slipped, powders clung, and spices resisted. The messiness was part of the play, connecting me to the materials in a personal way. 

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*Note: I wore gloves during this part of the exploration because I had small cuts on my fingers. Even with the gloves, I could still feel the textures and the mess of the materials pressing and sliding against my hands. The slight barrier made me more aware of how the materials wanted to stick, slip, and move.

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Each combination opens new possibilities 

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Each combination opens new possibilities 

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I asked a friend for a different type of paper because I was curious how the paint and materials would react on another surface. I wanted to explore how texture, absorbency, and thickness could change the way the materials moved, stuck, or blended.

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Words that captured my thoughts, actions, and feelings in the moment. Some words are verbs like mix, drip, stick, and explore, showing how I moved with the materials. Others are nouns like mess, memory, sensation, and surprise, which helped me name the emotional and sensory experiences that emerged.

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Words that captured my thoughts, actions, and feelings in the moment. Some words are verbs like mix, drip, stick, and explore, showing how I moved with the materials. Others are nouns like mess, memory, sensation, and surprise, which helped me name the emotional and sensory experiences that emerged.

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As I experimented with the materials, I wrote down words that helped me track both the physical actions and the emotional responses. I found myself moving between doing and feeling, mixing, smearing, pressing, and also noticing sensations like warmth, resistance, or calmness. Writing these words helped me slow down and reflect on how materials shape not only what we create but how we feel as we create it.

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Green tea leaves provided a vibrant green colour.

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Green tea leaves provided a vibrant green colour.

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The green tea leaves added a soft, earthy green tone and a delicate texture to the paint. I was surprised that something so dry and leafy could give colour this vibrant. The leaves didn’t fully blend, they stayed visible, adding interest and contrast. This reminded me that even unexpected materials can contribute to the composition (Pacini-Ketchabaw et al., 2016).

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Cushion material placed on mustard paint

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Cushion material placed on mustard paint

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I placed a soft cushion stuffing onto the mustard paint. I wasn’t sure what would happen, but the way it absorbed and spread the colour made it look like a soft, floating cloud. The combination of texture and tone created something gentle and unexpected. This moment reminded me that improvisation leads to moments we can’t plan, where materials and gestures work together to form something entirely new (Pacini-Ketchabaw et al., 2016).