Have your parents ever told you not to play with your food? That’s because they didn’t know food could be used to create stunning works of art. Here are some things you could use to express yourself instead of paintbrushes, pencils, and clay.
1. Foodscapes
Photo courtesy of carlwarner.com
This is not a dream: someone created a real version of Candyland. Everything in Carl Warner’s “foodscapes” is edible. Streets paved with cookies, houses made of marshmallows, what more could anyone ask for? His works are mesmerizingly beautiful, but who would have the heart to eat them?
2. I Can’t Believe it is Butter
Photo courtesy of blueribbonnews.com
Did you know that people have been using butter to sculpt since 1890? Turns out, there are many sculptors today who carve out all kinds of objects using our favorite type of fat (everything is better with butter.) There are even several butter sculpture contests in the US.
3. Portraits Made of Toast
Photo courtesy of news.henryhargreaves.com
If butter can be used to sculpt, the only logical follow up is to make art with toast. And artist Henry Hargreaves did just that. By arranging bread slices all toasted to a different degrees, he was able to “paint” delicious portraits.
4. Cereal Portraits
Photo courtesy of ryanalexiev.com
Ryan Alexiev, an artist from California, uses cereal to create portraits of celebrities, TV characters, and many more! At first the piece looks like a beautiful mosaic, but if you look closely you can see what look like Fruit Loops.
Now the only question is: did he seriously separate thousands of pieces of cereal by shape and color? And exactly how long did that take him?
5. Art On a Plate
Photo courtesy of redhongyi.com
Malasysian artist Red Hong Yi creates beautiful pictures with common food, on a regular white plate. While a lot of professional “food artists” need to obtain copious amounts of food in order to create their work, Hong Yi takes a minimalistic approach that works just as wonderfully.
It makes it seem like all of us could create food art, if we put our mind to it…
6. My Spectacular Fail
Photo by Eury Fabian
OK, maybe not everyone is destined to be a food artist. I tried to recreate the works of the great professionals and ended up with these masterpieces. I’d like to say I am very proud of how they capture the intensity and complexity of the human condition.
It may seem like food art has no practical applications, but think about it: moms have been trying to get their kids to eat by making funny shapes with food for generations. When a kid sees a plate of salad and vegetables, a doomed look appears in their eyes. But even things like my hilarious attempt at food art just may make veggies seem more appealing to youngsters.
Overall, the future is bright for us food artists.
You can join our ranks or feast your eyes on more tasty creations: