Confection #15

The Confections series started as a response to turning 30. It was a celebration of birthdays, of cake, 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. When I started this project, I not only had to learn how to shoot in a studio setting, but also how to bake and decorate cakes. I ordered a kit from Martha Stewart.com that included an instructional video. When I quickly discovered my cakes were never going to look like the ones in the video and the pamphlet, I was free to make them as grotesque and amazing as possible-- my act of rebellion.

Three years later I am making these crazy confections and am still obsessing over color and pattern. This series continues to comment on my intense desire to strive for perfection and beauty, while embracing the absurdity of the results. The industry of do- it- yourself divas is still going strong in television, magazines and books. It's a fantasy world where entertaining, cooking and decorating unite. It's a place where one needs to have a beautiful home, decorated seasonally, in order to entertain friends with gourmet meals and elaborately concocted desserts.

Amy Stevens, 2008