Today we’d like to introduce you to Akiko White.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
As a child I loved creating and drawing, but I didn’t get a formal drawing class until college. We lived in a small west Texas town, where there weren’t many avenues to learn art other than a few painting classes that I took with my mother and grandmother. I learned how to decorate cakes through a small cake class and soon after I created celebration cakes for my friends and family. I studied graphic design at the Mcnay Art institute and later took a job as a graphic designer in a publishing house in San Antonio. I also taught both traditional and digital illustration at San Antonio College.
I had always dreamed of being a children’s book author and illustrator. At the time I was still creating cakes for friends and family, and decide to combine the two creative ideas which lead me to create my first cake lustration. I won a Tomie dePaola award through the Society of Children’s Book Authors and Illustrators. I also later won an award at the That Takes a Cake show in Austin, Texas with a cakelustration idea. Through my cake award and magazine interviews, I landed a spot-on Food Network’s Cake Wars. That was quite an experience! I am now in the process of writing and submitting manuscripts and book dummies for publication.
Please tell us about your art.
I create illustrations with sugar and sweets. I call them cakelustrations. My inspiration comes from everything that surrounds me and the experiences that I have had in my life and of course baking cakes! Sometimes I will actually bake a cake and or use rice treats as my base that I mold into any shape and then I decorate with all kinds of products that are used in the cake decorating world. Everything I use is edible and nontoxic. There are so many new products that are being discovered in the edible sweets industry, this has made it possible to make so many new designs! After I finish a piece of art, we photograph it and I may use photoshop to do touch up and color corrections. It is a fun and “sweet” way to create art. I hope to make awareness of all that can be created with sugar products, inspire kids and create images that are fun to look at too!
What do you think is the biggest challenge facing artists today?
I think the biggest challenge for artist today is to come up with a unique and different twist on old classics art styles and to be discovered! Even though I have been blessed with the unique angle on my art, the awards, and TV appearance, I am still working hard to be discovered.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
They can support me online. www.akikowhite.com This is where you can get the latest news on my books and artwork and what exciting things are happening in my part of the world. I also have several sites they can follow me on.
www.twitter.com/akikowhite
www.linkedin.com/in/akikowhite
www.facebook.com/white.akiko
www.instagram.com/akikowhite
www.pinterest.com/akikowhite
Contact Info:
- Website: www.akikowhite.com
- Phone: 1-210-415-1785
- Email: akiko@akikowhite.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/akikowhite
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/white.akiko
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/akikowhite
- Other: www.pinterest.com/akikowhite
Image Credit:
Scott White Photography
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