How did you start doing desserts? (FAQ)

I have a history of using various textures in artwork. In fact, I have a 3-D piece that features an old door with a key collection. Another is created with socks -- the mateless ones that you find in the dryer.

A third is an abstract figure created with painted tissue paper. But that is not what immediately attracted me to the bakery items.

That started when I visited an Argentine grocery in Miami. In the back, the bakery case burst with colors and repeating rhythms of mounds and circles and other shapes. The scene was quite mesmerizing. Inspired, I whipped out my camera (film was still common at the time), and snapped several pictures. (The staff thought I was nutty tourist. I guess I was.) When I got back to town, I couldn't wait to have the film developed and start painting. The first artwork I did won an award in a local show so I was inspired to keep going.

While I was working on a cake piece, I thicken up the paint to better show the icing. That was first step in my journey on my way to gels, pastes, molding compounds and large variety of media to achieve new directions.

--Barb

Above left, a close up view of Grand Fruit Tart; above right, artist shown with Decision Points; right, Interdimensional Portal on the Space-Time Continuum; all are © B. Sistak Baur. All rights reserved.

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