Amy Stevens is an artist of many different talents who came to Longwood’s campus Tuesday, Feb. 5. To say her work is merely original would be an understatement. Her creativity and ability to make something that looks flawed become art were shared with the students of Longwood.
Her story, as she explained, began when she turned 30 and started making her birthday cake. Inspired by Do-It-Yourself (DIY) projects and home magazines, she started to enjoy creating her cakes and photographing them. She used a Martha Stewart decorating kit bought online and made over 100 cakes using the same recipe for eight years. This is what began the “Confections” series.
Instead of trying to make the cakes look perfect, Stevens wanted to make the cakes goofier and more imperfect.Sheexplainedmorebysaying,“whenthe cake would move and the icing would get messed up at the bottom I would actually leave it because I thought it was the best part of the image.”
Stevens mostly designs her cakes based off what type of pattern she uses as her background. Once the background is chosen, or created, only then does she begin decorating the cake. Stevens said it would typically take her a day or so to cook all the cake layers, then only three hours to put the entire cake together with the background in place.
Most of her backgrounds tend to be pretty eccen- tric, to say the least, with very busy patterns full of bright colors. While doing an artist residency at a bakery in Ireland, Stevens couldn’t find many fabrics, so she would look for interesting structures or colors to take pictures of throughout the town and then use those in Photoshop to create her own pattern. Stevens doesn’t like to think of herself as a cake decorator, however. “I think cake decorators might take offense if I call myself that,” she said. Mixed between being a decorator and a photographer, she would rather just be called an artist.
An artist is an appropriate title, as she seems to create something everywhere she goes. While liv- ing in Seattle for four years, she would do photog- raphy paintings — a photo in the middle of frame with a continuation of the photo painted around it. When looking for a house with her partner, Stevens still managed to create a series of four images using the different landscapes of the houses.
At one low point in her life when she wasn’t feel- ing good about her art, Stevens simply created more art by making prize ribbons for herself and display- ing them as well as cutting up her patterns but then sewing them back together to make a collage. Much of Stevens’ inspiration comes from the 50s because she says she just finds herself drawn to the bright colors and the irony of the decade. Stevens cited Robert Rauschenberg as one of her big inspi- rations from that time period.
Another source of inspiration for Stevens is Da- vid Graham because of the sense of humor in his art, which is similar to Stevens’ because she likes to add her own humor to her decorations. She said, “I really love it, I really hate it, but I kind of want to make fun of it.”
With the “Confections” series finished, you can still find Amy Stevens doing new things. Currently, she is working on a sculpture using home decorations (pillows) that is eight feet tall so far. She is also running a blog called, “It’s Kind of Like Telephone” with four other women where one will post a picture and the next will post a picture similar to the original. Stevens will also be working in China this summer, where a lot more of her original style is sure to be turned into new art.
