portfolio - yuko okabe - My Recipe, Our Potluck

My Recipe, Our Potluck

I was the 2025 Artist in Residence with the Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts. My project, My Recipe, Our Potluck, explored how our communities view cultural resilience and resistance through a lens of food and gathering. Using food as a storytelling vessel, Teen Artists and I collected stories from their personal lives, each other, and from community members through interactive workshops. We translated those stories and observations into illustrated works. Teen Artists worked with and learned from community members who touch different parts of the food ecosystem—farmers, chefs, food vendors—as well as everyday people who need food as sustenance. Through these experiences, the Teen Artists learned about the technical aspects of how food travels through the industrial pipeline, while also discovering how they connect their identities and culture to food.

In addition to facilitating this program, I created an illustration series about Food Justice. Check that out here.

Classroom Learnings

Photo by Hannah Rosman

Photo by Yuko Okabe

Photo by Hannah Rosman

Photo by Yuko Okabe

Students and I worked together during after school sessions during the spring and Monday through Friday between July and August. We primarily practiced using gouache, exploring how to use color, lettering, design, and illustration to complete assignments. Work included food patterns, still life, personalized menus and recipe cards, books, and an independent final project. We explored how food connects to topics such as memory, gathering, wartime conflicts, displacement, and celebration. We also used in-class time to prepare for our field trips, particularly designing books for our color + taste workshops with The Food Project and The Boston Public Library.

Field trip • Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Photo by Isaac Madera

At the start of the program, we visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum to see the exhibit, Ming Fay: Edge of the Garden. The exhibit highlights Ming Fay’s exploration of gardens as places of memory, connection, and imagination through larger-than-life sculptures which tied into our AIR program’s focus on food and community. We felt inspired by Fay’s sensory, expressive works. We had the privilege to connect with museum staff who shared their experience in museum curation work and we had time to self-explore the museum collection. Special thanks to Rachel De Luca and our tour guide, Sydney Resendez, for making this trip possible.

Field trip • The Food Project

Photo by Maya Das O'Toole

Photo by Yuko Okabe

Book box design by Maya Das O'Toole

The Food Project (TFP) strives to provide fresh, healthy, and affordable food to everyone while engaging communities in conversations around food security and land stewardship. AIR Teen Artists visited The Food Project locations in Lincoln and Dorchester, volunteering on the farm and participating in farm activities hosted by Root Crew, TFP’s most advanced youth leadership program that tackles real food system issues in their own communities. Inspired by TFP’s farm and commitment to food justice, AIR Teen Artists hosted a “comparative tasting” activity that invited Root Crew teens to taste fruits and vegetables from their farm and translate those tastes into colors and drawings. AIR and Root Crew teens logged their reflections into hand-made books by AIR Teen Artists.

Special thanks to TFP staff—Ally Chase, Ludia Modi-James, John Wang—and Root Crew teens for their support and collaboration!

Field trip • Shaw-Roxbury Boston Public Library

Photo by Maya Das O'Toole

The BPL Shaw-Roxbury Branch’s Nutrition Lab serves as a hub for nutrition literacy through hands-on demos and cooking classes. The Nutrition Lab teaches healthy eating and a space for people to develop important life, community, and work skills. AIR Teen Artists participated in a beautiful cooking class hosted by Chef Nahdra Ra where we cooked Seasoned Golden Rice & Beans, Curry Chickpea Stew, and Veggie Delight. After the class, Teen Artists led a “comparative tasting” activity where they invited cooking class participants, Chef Nahdra, and Nutrition Lab staff to taste various fresh ingredients. We then translated those tastes into drawings which we logged into hand-made books by AIR Teen Artists.

Special thanks to library staff—Renee Gaillard, Stephanie Chace, Erica Yearwood—and Chef Nahdra Ra for their support and collaboration!

Collaboration • Fresh Truck

Artwork by Aaliyah Levy

Artwork by Dontaezjah Miller

Artwork by Enijae Booker

Artwork by Laila Limontas

Artwork by Zoe Fernandez

Photo by Yuko Okabe

Fresh Truck aims to get fresh food to communities and households that need it the most. Their mobile grocery store strengthens communities through providing healthy, affordable, and high-quality produce. Fresh Truck invited AIR Teen Artists to create food stickers to give out to Fresh Truck shoppers and children. The stickers range from iconic images of produce to delightful food characters. Special thanks to the Fresh Truck staff—Courtney Ignace, Annie Gibbons—for their support and collaboration. Designs by Aaliyah Levy, Dontaezjah Miller, Enijae Booker, Laila Limontas, and Zoe Fernandez