Celia Butler: Apples to Apples

From San Jacinto College:

“The San Jacinto College Central Campus Art Gallery opens Apples to Apples featuring a body of work constructed using non-traditional materials by multi-disciplinary artist Celia Butler (1981). With several works created specifically for this exhibition, Apples to Apples reflects the artists’ interest in childlike associations with innocence, reward and celebration and the contrasting adult association of bad habits, guilt and sensuality. At the crux of this investigation is the idealized female, caught between childhood and adulthood, a product of the myth of fairytales and the presentation of female character archetypes. These ideas coalesce in the pairing of braided strands of long blond hair looped around colorfully stacked layers of a delicious ice cream cake or a life-sized rock candy apple coated in swirls of pink and purple hues.

The sculpted confectionary treats and baked goods are made in part by using cast resin, cold wax mediums, spackle, and sugar crystals. They are conceptual in their reference to beauty as consumption and their imperfectly caked tactile quality, resonates unbridled indulgence. In contrast, Butler’s drawings are delicate and precise with a hint of whimsy, but most importantly, they stand on their own, offering a glimpse into the artist’s range and deft of hand.”