Merry Moon Designs: Embrace the Muse

Wow, this has been an insanely long week & exhausting week, but it’s been exciting too. Last night I gave a presentation at the Craft Center for our new series The Craft Continuum. We envisioned a casual lecture/discussion series highlighting our staff, faculty and members sharing their art journeys. Well, I was the first guinea pig along with one of our glass lampworking instructors, David Licata.

Of course, for me, the most important part of the whole evening was having awesome snacks. Sure, I took time to put together a lovely power point presentation, but I spent more time baking cupcake shaped sugar cookies and lemon cupcakes with lemon buttercream frosting. And they were a HUGE hit!

After the magic of the frosting and sprinkles wore off I did have to give my presentation, which I think went really well. I started off showing my early work from my undergraduate days. I have a BFA from the University of Northern Colorado in Fiber Arts. Yes, you can ask, as everyone does…What the hell is fiber arts? I literally have a degree in basket weaving. OK, it also includes paper making, weaving, surface design, beading, etc. And I also have a BA in Philosophy, so you can see that I left college completely unprepared for any actual career. I decided to spare you the not-so-exciting photos of my early work.

The bulk of my presentation was sharing work of other artists who inspire me. It’s taken me nearly 38 years to realize that a food obsessed girl just needs to embrace it, and realize that tasty treats are my muse. I've come to terms with the fact that while my main themes of my work are candy, cakes, cupcakes and other sweets, what I produce is art and I don't need anyone elses approval to make my work valid. As an artist I don't make political statements, or museum pieces. I make felt cupcakes, so there.

Here's a sample of pics from my presentation of other artists who have elevated seemingly mundane sweet treats to amazing pieces of art:

These first few painting are the work of the amazing Wayne Thiebaud. I just want to reach out lick the frosting off his paintings!

The piece above is called "Milk, Orange & Dark Bars" by Peter Anton. His mixed media pieces are so realistic yet whimsical in their ridiculously large scale. I think it's so cool how they actually look frosty.

Peter also did the chocolates below. This is piece is an extra large 48" x 48"

This is a shot from Peter's studio. Don't you want to go there? It looks like Willy Wonka's workshop!

These yummy looking chocolates are glass! They are "chocolate glass confections" by Hulet & Hulet Glass. They look like they could melt in your mouth.

I adore this teacup by Adrian Kohler. The craftsmanship of his wood sculptures is remarkable. Everything here is wood, including the cookies.

These "Petite Patisserie" are by Kima from Spain. I love how delicate they are. Her work is delicious and can be found in her Etsy store: Kup Kup Land.