The Art of Food
By Chris Astrala
Remember when you were growing up, your parents always told you not to play with your food? Well you can be sure that the following artists were told that too, but after you take a look at their work you will be glad that they did not listen to their parents advice.
French sculptor Christel Assante uses the naturally delicate qualities of eggshells to create sculptures that are extraordinarily fragile, creating designs that almost resemble lacework in their intricacy. Assante creates custom designs for buyers, working in mostly quail and goose eggs. Each egg takes her about 3 to 4 days to sculpt. The eggs are lit from a small bulb placed inside through a hole in the bottom.
Sculptor Jim Victor spends hours in extremely cold freezers sculpting mounds and mounds of butter into life-size figures of horses, children, and of course, cows. Butter isn’t the only food material he works with – he has created sculptures in chocolate and cheese as well as mounds of fruits and vegetables. He also works in traditional media like bronze and wood.
Renaissance artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo was perhaps the first artist to use food to create a mosaic image, though his work was in paint, not made of food itself. This image, ‘Summer’, is part of a seasonal series and features a human profile made up of fruits and vegetables. His work had a surreal quality long before the advent of the Surrealist Art movement, and his ‘food portraits’ no doubt inspired some of the other artists on this list.
James Parker of Veggy Art creates some of the most incredible fruit and vegetable sculptures, and has been featured repeatedly on the Food Network, including a Fantasy Fruit Sculpture challenge (for which he won the gold metal in a rematch). Fruit and vegetable carving has been popular for food garnishing in Asia since ancient times and has evolved into works of art that outshine the food itself.
Pastry chef Mike McCarey translates client’s ideas into confectionery masterpieces, making edible sculptures that are about as amazing as they get. Dogs, dinosaurs, musical instruments, shoes, sports equipment and dozens of other items get the sugar-and-flour treatment in sculptural cakes that are almost too beautiful to eat.
Ray Duey of Chef Garnish uses apples, melons and other fruit as a medium for beautiful table arrangements. Duey is an acclaimed produce carver who uses small, sharp tools to carve fruit into stunning shapes and designs. Duey squared off against previously mentioned produce sculptor James Parker in two Food Network Challenges, winning the first one while Parker one the rematch.
Tamás Balla. This incredible artist animates food in ways you would never imagine, transforming ordinary fruits and loves of bread into pieces and parts of strange stories, complete with offbeat implications, curious perspectives and unique facial expressions.
Jason Mecier is a mosaic artist who creates portraits made of unexpected materials – namely, food. Potato chips, beans, hamburger buns, candy, cookies, noodles, and pretzels come together to portray the images of celebrities like Rosie O’Donnell, Rachel Ray, Jerry Seinfeld and Kristy Yamaguchi. The subjects of his portraits have left comments on his website like this gem from Boy George: ““How fabulous! I’m a linguine head.”
Chinese artist Song Dong and a cast of builders created this ‘Biscuit City’ in a London department store. The scene depicts a traditional Asian city complete with a stadium and a church, and while Dong says he designed a few of the buildings, they mostly made it up as they went along. An estimated 72,000 biscuits were used along with tea, caramels and fruit shortcake.
Special thanks to www.webecoist.com for their contribution to this article.
