DAILY DOSE OF ART

Sugar Murals

September 22, 2012 11:02 pm

Welcome to another Food Day on Daily Dose of Art! I hope you have enjoyed the week’s feature on Métro Mural Inspirations. Today I bring you some ‘sweet food for thought’. I bring you Canadian artist Shelley Miller who makes murals using sugar icing. Let’s look into the story behind her unusual choice of medium.

Shelley working on her confecious mural
Image Source

Mural Detail

Image Source

Shelley Miller’s public mural “Stained” was unveiled on March 26, 2011 in Waddington Alley, Victoria, BC, Canada. The mural remained in place throughout April and May until it disintegrated. It was best viewed repeatedly as it changed.

Shelley Miller created her “confecious” mural during her artist residency at Open Space.

The mural mimicked Portuguese colonial tiles but was constructed entirely of sugar. Miller’s ephemeral installations are like history itself, eroding and dissolving over time, subject to the distortions of told and retold stories, lore, and myth.

The mural was a trompe l’oeil resembling traditional azulejo tile murals. Azulejo is a form of Portuguese or Spanish painted, tin-glazed, ceramic tile work that has been produced without interruption for five centuries. Unlike traditional tile work, Shelley Miller’s installation was made to fade in the sun and slowly disintegrate. (Info from Open Space)

Learn more about Shelley Miller
Listen to Shelley talk about her work at Open Space on YouTube