In my multidisciplinary practice I employ culinary techniques as well as more traditional forms of art making including sculpture, drawing, painting, and photography. I use candy and treats to represent childlike associations with sugar as innocence, reward, and celebration, and the contrasting adult associations of bad habit, guilt, and candy’s sexual nature of sucking and biting. I am interested in the idealized female, which exists at the convergence of these two opposites, caught between childhood and adulthood.
I am inspired by the pairing of fairy tale imagery with food-based references for the feminine. My works contain recurring elements of candy apples, baked goods, and snake-like blonde hair to create a sense of uneasiness as the combination of hair and food is generally off-putting.
Celia Butler is a multidisciplinary artist utilizing materials and techniques from fine art, craft, and culinary disciplines. She received an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan in 2011 and a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City, Missouri in 2007. Before moving to Houston, Celia lived in Brooklyn, New York working in the textile design and production industry. She has participated in artist residencies at the Houston Center For Contemporary Craft and The Wassaic Project. Celia has received awards such as the Juror’s Award from Lawndale’s The Big Show, the Creative Promise Award from the Surface Design Association, and was a finalist for the Mercedes-Benz Emerging Artist Award. She is an active member of the artist-run nonprofit organization Box13 Artspace.
Website: celiabutler.com
Instagram: @studiobutler