Stare too long at Amy Stevens work and you might just give yourself a visual toothache. Starting with an idea to make 30 birthday cakes as a marker of an upcoming birthday, Amy's work has cooked up into something with its own pulse. Two parts Lisa Frank with a dash of miss Havisham, her confections are camouflaged or menacing, like wild things colored to warn unsuspecting predators of what might just lay within.Doling out generous portions of pattern and color, Stevens cuts right past dinner and gives you what you really want.
And you don't even have to finish your Lima beans.
I happened across her work at mew gallery this summer,curiously enough on my way to sign up for a cake decorating class. Unfortunately Amy is not the instructor.
She currently has a show up at The Center For Emerging Visual Artist's through September 20th ( 237 S. 18th St., Suite 3A Philadelphia). Opening reception Friday, September 14th 5:30 - 7:30.
Joe: You mention your initial investigation into cake making on your website. Would you mind talking a little bit about why you decided to make cakes in the first place?
Amy: For a little more than a year prior to starting this series I was using cake imagery from my collection of vintage cookbooks in my collage and mixed media work. I was also making abstract paintings that mimicked icing-- as well as incorporating stencils and images of cakes. Before I started making my own cakes, I was a bit of a collector of images of them - but mostly from 1950's cookbooks.
Joe: Did you bake growing up?
Amy: I loved to bake when I was growing up. Cookies, pies, cakes-- anything my mom would let me bake. It's a very precise and methodical process that somehow relaxes me. And I have a sweet tooth!
Joe: The "backdrops" you use work as a pivot in your photographs. It appears that you choose the fabric first, is that true? How do the two relate? Are you working with the pattern or against it?What is your process like?
Amy: Yes. The first ten or so in this series I made the cakes first, but as I made more and more (I think I'm somewhere in the 60's now) the easier it became to choose the fabric first and then see where I could take the cake
as opposed to finding backgrounds to go with the cakes. My cake decorating skills aren't the best, so I may start out trying to mimic and pattern in the fabric and end up with something totally different.Decorating each cake is a very intuitive process and very much the same way I would approach a canvas or any other substrate for my art. The fabric is used as a springboard for color and pattern and I just go from there.
Joe: In college I can remember having conversations at length about pattern.I found it interesting that something seemingly benign like
a decorative border had a lot of power in "the old world."People believed that the repetition would hypnotize and thus entrap evil spirits.Another point i remember is how pattern sets up a visual expectation and can make the viewer feel psychologically comforted since they know what to expect next. Would you agree with that?
Amy: Definitely. It's funny because I love pattern and am always drawn to it,but have never really tried to analyze the meaning behind it and it makes a lot of sense.
Amy: For a little more than a year prior to starting this series I was using cake imagery from my collection of vintage cookbooks in my collage and mixed media work. I was also making abstract paintings that mimicked icing-- as well as incorporating stencils and images of cakes. Before I started making my own cakes, I was a bit of a collector of images of them - but mostly from 1950's cookbooks.
Joe: Did you bake growing up?
Amy: I loved to bake when I was growing up. Cookies, pies, cakes-- anything my mom would let me bake. It's a very precise and methodical process that somehow relaxes me. And I have a sweet tooth!
Joe: The "backdrops" you use work as a pivot in your photographs. It appears that you choose the fabric first, is that true? How do the two relate? Are you working with the pattern or against it?What is your process like?
Amy: Yes. The first ten or so in this series I made the cakes first, but as I made more and more (I think I'm somewhere in the 60's now) the easier it became to choose the fabric first and then see where I could take the cake
as opposed to finding backgrounds to go with the cakes. My cake decorating skills aren't the best, so I may start out trying to mimic and pattern in the fabric and end up with something totally different.Decorating each cake is a very intuitive process and very much the same way I would approach a canvas or any other substrate for my art. The fabric is used as a springboard for color and pattern and I just go from there.
Joe: In college I can remember having conversations at length about pattern.I found it interesting that something seemingly benign like
a decorative border had a lot of power in "the old world."People believed that the repetition would hypnotize and thus entrap evil spirits.Another point i remember is how pattern sets up a visual expectation and can make the viewer feel psychologically comforted since they know what to expect next. Would you agree with that?
Amy: Definitely. It's funny because I love pattern and am always drawn to it,but have never really tried to analyze the meaning behind it and it makes a lot of sense.
Joe: What do you look for in a pattern?
Amy: Color is usually the first one since I have been grouping them by theme,but then it's just based on my personal taste and what's out there. I have a favorite place for buying fabric (reprodepotfabric.com) that never fails to inspire and feed my cravings for great patterns. The wilder and crazier-- the more fun it is to decorate the cakes, so I always take that into consideration as well.
Joe: The palette in your work is so varied and just as satisfying as actually eating a piece of cake. It's like licking icing off a spoon with your eyes. Ranging from play-dough colors (as in confections #26) to more
earthy avocados and turquoise (as in confections #41 and #48),what influences your color choice?
Amy: My past four groupings of work have been related to each other by color theme. As my work remarks on domesticity and decor, I have been making each sub series of work for each new show in a different color theme according to the season. For example, my Inliquid solo show in February was all reds and pinks, this summer I had two shows-- one at The Icebox in a group show with whites and yellows and another at Mew Gallery with Blues, greens and whites. My latest which opens August 30 at the Center for Emerging Visual Artists will be of a botanical theme (for the patterns) and colors are greens, browns and some salmon pinks. For this show I will also be painting the walls to match the work to create an environment.
Joe: How do you feel about the word decoration?Do you feel like your works are "decorative?"
Joe: The palette in your work is so varied and just as satisfying as actually eating a piece of cake. It's like licking icing off a spoon with your eyes. Ranging from play-dough colors (as in confections #26) to more
earthy avocados and turquoise (as in confections #41 and #48),what influences your color choice?
Amy: My past four groupings of work have been related to each other by color theme. As my work remarks on domesticity and decor, I have been making each sub series of work for each new show in a different color theme according to the season. For example, my Inliquid solo show in February was all reds and pinks, this summer I had two shows-- one at The Icebox in a group show with whites and yellows and another at Mew Gallery with Blues, greens and whites. My latest which opens August 30 at the Center for Emerging Visual Artists will be of a botanical theme (for the patterns) and colors are greens, browns and some salmon pinks. For this show I will also be painting the walls to match the work to create an environment.
Joe: How do you feel about the word decoration?Do you feel like your works are "decorative?"
Amy: I know that to some artists the word decoration is a bad word-- some might shudder at the thought that their piece of artwork would actually be purchased because it matches the couch or decor of a room. My work is all about decoration. Many layers of it in fact.
Joe: Where do you find inspiration?
Amy: Other artists, wallpaper patterns, fabric, home decorating magazines.
Joe: Do you eat the cakes when they are done?
Amy: If I ate all the cakes I made I would be obese and diabetic! It's sad they go to waste, but sometimes they sit in the studio a while before I get to shooting or decorating them, so they get a little stale-- probably not the tastiest.
Joe: What kind of cake are they?
Amy: Yellow.
Since I know these don't get consumed, I don't splurge on the finest of butter and eggs-- just the basics to get the job done. Of course when I bake for my receptions-- I get to be creative with the cake and not just the decorating. I've made red velvet cupcakes, chocolate and coconut in the past.
Joe: Do you see a strong connection between your collage and cake making?
Amy: It's all connected-- all of my work.
Joe: What music are you currently listening to?
Amy: Well, let's see, just to name a few of my summer picks: the new Iron and Wine, Andrew Bird, Elvis Perkins, M. Ward, Mary Timony, Spoon, The New Pornographers, Field Music, Thievery Corporation, Astrud Gilberto...
4 comments:
Wow. never would have thought of cake as sculpture.
While I adore food and cake with my tea (like a good irish girl) these cakes are just too beautiful to eat. I wish I had her design my wedding cake.
Great photos by the way.
xoxo
i like the cake right above where amy says "yellow".
i was sort of disappointed that the cakes don't get eaten... i think she should feed her audiences!
nice idea though!
i think it's ironic that there was a show at "the icebox gallery"...
i enjoyed the bit about patterns especially. this whole process is very interesting to me. in a way, reminds me of food blogging...cooking/baking, photographing, writing...oh what would we do w/out art.
(perhaps cakes at end of run could be donated to soup kitchens/shelters??)
very nicely done joe.
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