The Tasteful Art Where Sculpture and Eating Collide

Northern Virginia commuters whiz by the featureless industrial park. None would ever guess the goings on inside Suite 112, home of Stacked Cakes. 

The holidays are upon us and the most wonderful time of the year can also be a difficult time if you’ve lost a loved one or are going through tough times. For some, what “should be” happy, joyous days and nights of celebrating with friends and family turn cold and lonely even when our faces don’t reflect the deep hurt we may be feeling. Grief is a powerful emotion…

I’m on way to Bloomington, Indiana, my 1994 Mazda Protege DX filled with gear and normal luggage, cruising along when all of a sudden my car momentarily shuts off and the check engine light pops on. Stupefied, a moment later the car wakes back up. Ominous? 

Though nursing a cold, on Sunday, October 7th, I went to see “Abira and The Mountain” at the Hill School Theater.  Billed as A Place To Be’s newest family production focusing on acceptance, empathy and love, the story was Inspired by the hearts and minds of Amy Stone and Ryan Perry.   “Abira and The Mountain” tells the story of a princess in a wheelchair who finds her power by using her own challenges to help others.

Change denotes two things: the origin and the destination. You have the choice to keep your eyes on either side of the bridge as your feet lead the crossing, but you’re leaving somewhere to arrive somewhere else.

Rebekah Harding is metamorphosing. Shedding the accoutrements of childhood, she’s closed down her blog “Beat Bias with Bekah.” Rather than online articles like “Weaponized Avocados Break Deli Clerk’s Jaw,” she has moved on to writing about adjusting to college life in “Away from home, alone” for The Temple News.

Exuberance is a trait I've noticed in Oliver, my new puppy, and one I'd like to translate into art. By breaking the word down, letter by letter I think we can all create and enjoy art with this characteristic!

I’m sure you’ve heard the term “starving artist” before. This label applies to individuals pursuing art and struggling to make ends meet; at the least in the United States, it’s a title that is somewhat, oddly, seen as normal.

But let’s look at the term a different way, shall we?

Have you ever made something for dinner that was a total concoction and it was the best thing you ever ate, then had no idea how you did it? Or, you pulled off a really cool effect in your latest work of art then when you tried to do it again you couldn’t begin to achieve the same look?

In this article, Artist Elaine Weiner-Reed shares paintings that she considers makeovers. These makeover paintings fall into two categories: unfinished and finished canvases. In the two examples provided, something continued to bother Elaine about each painting, pushing her to risk everything and continue painting, subtly or dynamically evolving a piece until she was satisfied with the results. 

Oh, there are those moments.

You know the ones I’m talking about.

Those moments where in the midst of them, your world has fallen apart, and you see virtually no glimmer of light. You’re stunned, speechless, and seemingly trapped.

Fall is in the air, leaves are changing color, and the donation season is descending quickly upon us. There are so many worthy causes, but how do you as an artist pick and choose without donating all of your work away, or feel guilty that you turned down “painting for puppies”? I mean what monster says no to helping puppies? At least that’s how you feel when you don’t agree to donate something.

In the early 1600’s, Caravaggio filled his brush with yellow and white pigments to add the chiaro (light) to the scuro (dark) of his dramatic masterpieces. White linen sleeves, luminous flesh and a Palomino horse still gleam against his richly dark backgrounds. But the same lead white and lead-tin yellow pigments that brought light to his oil paintings likely also brought darkness and death to the Italian painter.

That is the question…the answer? Yes. Post on Instagram? Yes. Share on Facebook? Yes. Be visible and proactive on social media sites on a regular basis? YES! Social media is the modern version of the old telephone game.

“The Starving Artist” - the modern day stereotype, or rather the widely accepted “norm”, applied to those who choose or strive to do art for a living. Be it a songwriter, a novelist, a painter, these are the brave souls who choose to do something they love in exchange for a subpar living standard.

Winter, spring, summer, and fall. The four seasons on our calendar are inextricably woven throughout the fabric of our lives. We celebrate them, curse them, look forward to their changing, and bemoan their passing…songs are written in their honor, poems recited to mark their coming and going and they mirror the passage of time in our lives.