Wall Candy from Montreal Street Artist Shelley Miller
Shelley Miller has a sweet take on Street Art that embraces its ephemeral quality and merges it with tile making traditions from Spain and Portugal – and cake making. Using sugar and cake icing, she has brought the street occasional and temporary installations of historically based scenes that are inspired by old tile design, patterning, architectural motifs, and a decidedly calligraphic approach to letter style that most graff heads wouldn’t go near, unless they wanted a taste.
Shelley Miller. “Cargo” Montreal, 2009. Hand painted sugar tiles. Day 1 (photo © Shelley Miller)
Painstaking and faithful to traditional techniques that were originally used with more stable materials, Miller does her work on the street knowing fully well that it will be destroyed by the elements and that passersby will witness it’s disintegration as rain melts it away. Also, since it is edible, sometimes a kid will break off some pieces – or simply lick the wall.
Shelley Miller. “Cargo” Montreal, 2009. Detail. Hand painted sugar tiles. Day 1 (photo © Shelley Miller)
Shelley Miller. “Cargo” Montreal, 2009. Hand painted sugar tiles. Day 9 (photo © Shelley Miller)
Shelley Miller. “Cargo” Montreal, 2009. Hand painted sugar tiles. Day 15 (photo © Shelley Miller)
A more contemporary homage to the graffiti tradition, Miller did this “Throw Up” in Toronto for Nuit Blanche this year using sugar and food dye. (photo © Shelley Miller)
Shelley Miller. “Throw Up”. Detail. Toronto, Nuit Blanche, 2012. Sugar and food dye. (photo © Shelley Miller)
Doing a fill with frosting. Shelley Miller. “Throw Up”. Detail. Toronto, Nuit Blanche, 2012. Sugar and food dye. (photo © Shelley Miller)
Other Articles You May Like from BSA:
The walls are speaking. Unless they have been silenced. We regularly conject that a graffiti or Street Art piece rides only as long as it is allowed. Subject to immediate and daily perusal, ill...
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities. Now screening : 1. Subvertisers in London 20192. Cristina Lina / Contorno Urbano Foundation / 12+1 Project / B...
“Grand Mozeur Feukeur.” French Street Artist Julien de Casabianca is debuting a new series of photographs that may appear as a surprising departure from his previous multi-year multi-city OUTI...
“It makes you really understand the world in a really different way – of how you take responsibility for what you are doing.” Addison Karl. Amazon Artist in Residency Program. (photo © James Harno...
A quarter of a century since falling in love with New York, WK looks at his route. WK Interact was 8 years old, spending hours drawing on old floor plans. On the job with his father, even then he...