ABOUT THE ARTIST

Luke Boyd is a painter, baker, and cake decorator working and living in Athens, Ohio. His practice combines cake decorating, baking and painting to relate the temporality and sweetness of baked goods to life. Boyd’s practice is cyclical in nature as his cake decorating informs his painting and his paintings inform his cake decorating. He paints almost entirely from memory as the subject matter is something he has baked, tasted, or experienced.
The embrace of seemingly common objects in Luke’s work engages a wide audience that see something of themselves in his paintings. He is after the transcendental moment when the painting becomes more than an image of sweets. There is an inherent vulnerability as the baked good is nearing the end of its lifespan. It is on the cusp of consumption or expiration. They are worn out, damaged, melting from either love or neglect. He is not painting the subject as he sees it, but painting the emotional response it impresses upon him.