Edible and Non-Edible Art #5 and 6

A continuation of the food-related art series.

#5 Prudence Staite, Food is Art

Prudence Staite is a UK artist specializing in the sculpture of food materials - chocolate, cheese, fruit and vegetables, even cupcakes. Inspired at an early age, sculpting a penguin from a pear at age 6, Staite has always wanted to work with food. Her success is evidenced by the business she has grown, with many clients requesting custom work and a team she can call on to help. Her website, Food is Art explains the processes involved, from ordering, designing, delivering, installation, breakdown, disposal and recycling.

Staite holds demonstrations, workshops and provides photos and even time-lapsed videos.

100 kg of red cheddar were used to make this sculpture.

Kilmeaden Cheese Greek 'Discobulus' Statue

This 10-ft long caterpillar, made of whole-grain cereals, went on a tour to London, Liverpool, Brighton, Glasgow and Bristol.

Nestle Cereal Caterpillar

Prudence Staite and her team can create whatever the mind can conceive, from chocolate sofas, a likeness of a celebrity and even this working chocolate record that works just like a vinyl record and plays "You Sexy Thing" by the band Hot Chocolate.

#6 Sarah Illenberger

German artist, Sarah Illenberger loves to create visual puns using food. Hot peppers become the flame of a lighter, a slice of watermelon rains seeds, beets are exquisite rubies and a pomegranate becomes a grenade.

  

Illenberger is a Berlin-based artist, illustrator and designer. Her photographs of her art can be found in public places, books, magazines, digital media and window displays.

  

Food art is only a small part of her business - she also creates jewellery and fabric art. Prints of her works can be found in her online shop. 

  

Edible and Non-Edible Art #3 and 4

A continuation of the food-related art series.

#3 Julie Lee

Julie Lee is an LA-based artist and photographer who freely confesses that she's a food-playing nerd. She visits farmers' markets, gardens and even forages in wilder places for inspiration for her collages which she then photographs and adds to the stock in her shop. 

Strawberry Fields

Patty Pan Squash

Summer Love

Here are Julie's links:

• Website
• Instagram
• Shop

Next up:

#4 Takayo Kiyota 

Takayo Kiyota is a Tokyo-based illustrator and makizushi artist who creates maki rolls, that in cross-section, reveal images that wow.

Kiyota, who goes by the name Tama-chan, lays out the ingredients with precision onto the rice, imagining what it will look like when rolled and sliced. She says distortions happen easily when things get moved or squished a certain way in the rolling or slicing. 

The rolls are quite large, not like the maki we get at our local sushi bar. 

This next one she created for an article on the globalization of Japanese food.

Tama-chan has even created a roll of a fetus in utero where each slice revealed a different stage in its development. 

Tama-chan gives workshops and has written a book in English in case you want to check it out.

Here's a short video about Takayo Kiyota's art.

ChopValue

Do you ever think about the waste of plastic utensils for take-out food? Think again about the number of chopsticks around the world that get used once, then tossed. This Canadian company has found a way to recycle used chopsticks. (Now if only they could come up with a solution for all those plastic knives and forks we find in with our take-out food, even when we haven't asked for them)

Tea Bag Art: Ruby Silvious

Ruby Silvious is a US-based artist who specializes in miniatures, particularly paintings on used tea bags and torn paper. She finds inspiration in her travels and especially in her daily life.

Gray Day 2020

In her online shop she offers 6"X 6" metal prints of her creations which include a hanging kit. Approx. US$60

Shopaholic 2020

In this video Ruby Silvious talks about her work and some of her future projects.

Edible and Non-Edible Art #1 and 2

Today's post is the beginning of a series devoted to food portrayed in the arts. Or perhaps it's a continuation of the theme from the Pi Day post - pies as objets d'art. 

I think there about a dozen artists to feature so I'll try for two per post once in a while over the coming weeks and see how we get on. I found these artists through @womensart1 on Twitter as part of their campaign for #WOMENSART.

Let's start with breakfast. 

#1 Judith G. Klausner

Embroidered Egg on Toast, Judith G. Klausner

#1 is US artist, Judith G. Klausner. Her bio states that she enjoys playing with her food. Here's one of her cameo Oreos.

Oreo Cameo, Judith G. Klausner

Klausner's website is very interesting to browse through, lots of unusual artwork there. She sells 3-D prints of her Oreo Cameo series.

#2 Caitlin Freeman 

Caitlin Freeman is a food artist and pastry chef, formerly at the Blue Bottle Cafe at San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art. She finds inspiration there for recreating artworks that are consumable. Here is her Mondrian Cake on the front cover of her 2013 book:

Here's a sampling of other treats:

One Page Calendar

I've never thought about a calendar this way before. What do you think?

Lost?

In tribute to my walk on Offa's Dyke Path, along the border between England and Wales. 

Tomorrow...

And that day is SUMMER!!

English is Such an Interesting Language

Student Video

No words needed.

When in Doubt

Woman with a Parasol, Turned to the Left

This painting by Claude Monet was painted in 1886. The woman is Suzanne, one of the daughters of Alice Hochedé, who eventually married Monet in 1889. Suzanne, his step-daughter became one of his favourite models. The painting resides at the Museé d'Orsay in Paris.

A group of people in Normandy undertook the ambitious project of replicating the painting in knitting as part of the 2016 Normandy Impressionist Festival. With the help of volunteers of all ages and abilities, the knitting (approx. 10,000 squares were needed) and assembly of the work took more than 4 months.

The finished work was on display in August in front of Rouen Cathedral.

Pont-Audemer (27) : tricoter un tableau de Claude Monet, c'est possible

Lifestyle Lego

I found this on Twitter (@DesignInHome). Sometimes there are some really interesting ideas on Twitter. I thought this one was really cute: put your idle Lego figures to work holding cords.

I rummaged through the Lego and found a little astronaut. Perfect! But her hands are so tiny, they'll only hold a cord the size of my iPhone cord and I'm not sure how useful that is. Definitely cute though.

Cool as a Cucumber

@socreativepics

Charli's Crafty Kitchen

More YouTube fun: adorable sisters in Australia with weekly " cooking videos".

CharlisCraftyKitchen began in 2012 when Charli was 6 years old and Ashlee was 3. Charli, now 9, has always been passionate about her craft and being in front of a camera. Ash, now 6, enjoys being chief taste tester.

Charli and Ashlee will teach you how to make some great party foods that are simple and cute. There are tutorials for every occasion! Cake pops, cupcake toppers, party favours, cake decorating and easy no bake recipes. Lots of great ideas for being in the kitchen with kids.

By the way, in case you're wondering....

According to Outrigger's estimates, Charli's channel generates an average of $127,777 in ad revenue per month. That's taking into account YouTube's cut of revenue. The channel gets an average of 29 million views each month — in March, it had 29,133,270. Source: Business Insider

How True is This?

4 years old, but a continuing trend.

Bare Walls

Do you ever look at a bare wall on a building somewhere and wish somebody would plant something interesting in front? Or otherwise put colour and interest onto it?

Wind Power

In Muskoka, and probably elsewhere too, special trees have spring up in the last few years. From a distance they look like extremely tall healthy conifers. The truth is that they are camouflaged communication towers.

In the spring of 2014 a company in France introduced a tree that generates wind power. 36 feet tall and 26 feet in diameter, they have 72 artificial leaves. Each leaf is a small turbine that rotates in a vertical position. Since the turbines are quite light, they will spin even in a gentle breeze. Each "tree" can generate 3.1 kilowatts of power which seems small until you consider that they will be working most days when the larger fan-type turbines are often not working when there is insufficient wind. 

Although each Wind Tree costs about US$36,500, the supporters of the project claim that they will pay for themselves within a couple years. The trees, which are both quiet and sculptural will be placed in urban areas, possibly among other trees. 

Strainer Art

This interesting artform by Isaac Cordal caught my eye the other day.

The idea is that light shining through the strainer leaves an image on the surface below. 

• 

The Spanish-born (1974) artist is better known for his creation and placement of tiny cement figures in public places around the world, part of an on-going project called "Cement Eclipses". 

The following installation was part of Casus Pacis in St. Petersburg, Russia in August, 2014 and was dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I and to the on-going revolution in Ukraine.

Cordal also had an installation in Berlin recently called "Waiting for Climate Change" which I encourage you to have a look at . 

See more of his work here .