[imagesource: YouTube / Ethiopian Digest]

My mom always told me that only stupid people get bored.

This statement has followed me throughout my life and came in especially handy during our national lockdown.

Many people can relate to getting up to shenanigans, weird and wonderful, during those times.

There was plenty of banana bread being baked, some people even went bananas.

That’s exactly what 35-year-old Londoner Anna Chojnicka did when she was so bored during quarantine that she picked up the nearest household item and created an entire art movement with it.

Are you as surprised as she was that it’s a banana?

Bananas, it turns out, can help give you potassium and a canvas for your next doodle.

 

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Chojnicka started doodling on a banana with a fork and found the bruising effect rather interesting, so she continued and created more advanced drawings out of the marks.

As per The Washington Post, she acknowledges the strangeness of her medium:

“This is a bizarre symptom of the pandemic … creating banana art,” she said.

Her hobby has taken off on Twitter and Instagram, where she posts her ‘banana of the day’.

 

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She has also started sharing tutorials on how to do it (because anybody can), as well as appearing on a local TV station and YouTube.

The things she draws are inspired by what she would do if not stuck indoors, current events, popular cartoons, and prominent people, and are surprisingly intricate with perfect shading.

 

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The technique is all about pressure and oxidation of the banana skin, and there is no paint or pen involved.

The banana art started off as a way to fight boredom but has since led to a lot more.

“I saw an opportunity to put it to some good,” said Chojnicka, whose day job is working for a company that supports local businesses focused on social or environmental issues.

 

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With the help of all her fans and followers, moved or just amused, she has raised $1 600 (around R23 000) for FareShare, a charity in the UK that provides food to people in need. People have been donating via the fundraising site JustGiving.

Additionally, she has used her art to bring attention to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which aims to address the country’s energy shortage, as well as give something for the elderly people in her community to do.

I definitely see my favourite smoothie ingredient in a new light now.

[source:washingtonpost]