Amy Stevens: Confections

Rachel sent me a link that featured a photograph by Amy Stevens today. Stevens began photographing confectioneries when she turned 30 years old. I looked at each image on her website in an attempt to like them. They are so garish and the patterns in the background are the ones I always run furthest from in the fabric store (mustard yellow is my least favorite color next to orange and these hues are a dominant feature in this series). I marvel that as someone who loves color, I can't handle these. I know they are "imperfect" but I want them to look desirous and at the very least edible. The continual use of symmetrical compositions also grows old [I am hoping that this reaction is better than no reaction at all if Amy ever accidentally stumbles on this entry.] It soon became a test - would I like any one of these as I sifted through image after image? I finally settled on #2 - I can tolerate this one.



From her website: "It was a celebration of birthdays, color, pattern and obsessive absurdity. My original idea was to bake 30 birthday cakes for myself and photograph them. I didn't quite make it to 30 cakes in time for my thesis show, but I sure got a lot of ideas from those first cakes. I ordered a kit from marthastewart.com and watched an instructional video on decorating cakes. When I quickly discovered my cakes were never going to look like the ones in the video and the pamphlet, I decided they were better off in their exuberantly imperfect states."

Confections #28, 2006
Confections #54, 2007
Confections #57, 2007

I am very interested in her installation imagery however: sherbet colored walls, sculptures interspersed with the photographs, white decorated frames. I need to get that last glass plate poured (attempt #5) and if looking at these images makes me do that, then maybe it is a good thing.