- [Host] The San Diego region is home to many artists who work in an assortment of media.

As a curator and educator, I want to know what inspires these creatives.

This is "Insights Into Art."

(gentle music) On this episode of "Insights Into Art," I'm meeting with artist Maggie Shen.

(gentle music continues) Maggie likes to play with her food.

(gentle music continues) In her kitchen, Maggie creates edible sculptures.

It all began when she tried to find healthy recipes that her daughter, who was a picky eater, would like.

Adding a little whimsy to the food's appearance seemed to help as well.

- So this is what I prepared today.

You can break it too.

- This one I can.

- We can taste it too.

- Oh yeah.

This is really, really good.

So this one was made with what fruit did you use for this one?

- You try?

You smell.

We see it every day.

Strawberries.

- Oh, they're strawberries.

Yeah.

- So yeah, the idea of this project is that I did abstraction of the ingredients.

- Of the actual ingredient.

Combining her love of the local ecology and culinary arts, Maggie has developed edible creations that abstractly represent the landscape.

- I grew up in Taiwan and spent the first phase of adulthood in Europe, and now I'm here.

And then that made me think about who is native, who come first, and how do we call a place home and what it is to call somewhere home.

- Talking to a scientist friend is saying how artists also are, to me, similar in the way that they experiment with an idea and they observe the world around them.

- It's a mindfulness process, right?

Open up all the senses and being very curious about things.

Even all these common ingredients in your life, we took it for granted.

If I took the form out of it, do I still see the same or taste it the same?

So all these project, it is to offer, it is to help us help people or help myself to encounter my own preconceived bias.

And I think that's super important for an immigration society.

And then look at all these ingredients.

They are all what is native, what is not.

They all come to this place in different time and all have its own story coming here.

All these cooking skill all come from having a picky eater.

- [Host] Okay.

So you figured out-- - Constantly changing the form of the food so that it's fun to eat or she's eating vegetable, but she doesn't know they are vegetables.

- [Host] Right, right.

- And then that was fun for me and then everything go this way.

(laughing) - [Host] And then it became art.

- Yeah, it became art.

- Yeah.

- Why not?

This is what I do every day.

- [Host] It's intriguing to me how the creative process can be sparked by something as simple as creating healthy snacks to edible sculptures, to exploring the commonality between different people.

- I keep thinking about everybody is so different.

I'm from Taiwan, my husband is from Argentina, my child was born in Switzerland and now she's going to grow up here and we all speak different language and how are we going to live together?

And I think what I'm trying to do is always trying to find a common ground.

I see myself as an artist using art to make connections.

It's basically exploring who am I in this place?

Where's my place?

And I'm trying to establish the connection between myself and the people here and the land.

And then using full landscape project, you kind of invite everybody to come together.

That's the way, a very natural and very primitive way that we connect to each other.

- [Host] Maggie's edible ecological creations consist of original recipes.

Her gemstones are hand carved and dehydrated, creating a thin shell over a soft, lightly sweetened interior made with agar and cactus fruit.

The creatures look like desert plants that are made with bean paste, mochi, and peppercorns.

Her miniature boulders consist of figs and ground oats, and her favorite creation, inspired by San Diego sunsets, called The Sky, is made with agar and mochi.

- Some of the ingredient I pick is you see every day, tomatoes, strawberries, and it's also provide an opportunity to rethink the experience we already have and then to think about where are these idea from?

Do I have a new relationship with strawberries or with tomatoes?

And hopefully people can translate this experience to their everyday life.

- And then when you have everything set up in this landscape, so people are invited to come for kind of like the opening and then they come and they can start-- - And then we all forage together and then approach all these ingredients.

Some of them are every day, we see every day, and some of them-- - In a completely new form though.

- In the new form, exactly.

- Things that we are familiar with in a completely unfamiliar form.

- Right.

And it's kind of to ask the question, if I change how I look, do you still know me the way you know me before?

- It's the essence of this thing and that essence is still there even if it looks different.

- [Maggie] Can we look past the form itself?

Yeah.

- I'm ready to try some of these.

- Yeah.

- I think I want to go for one of the clouds.

- Clouds, yes.

- Because they are so pretty.

Maggie's perspective is unique.

Imagining ingredients as immigrants coming together to make new and delicious treats.

That's so good.

Oh my God.

I'm like a little kid again.

(Maggie laughing) Maggie's curiosity and willingness to learn and experiment have resulted in edible pieces of art that are truly inspiring.

Thank you, Maggie, for channeling your creativity in such a flavorful way.

(energetic music)