Meet Alyssa Kyle from Alyssa's Cupcake Confections...
I am 23 years old, and am the owner of "Alyssa's Cupcake
Confections." For the most part, I am self
taught. I am home-based but sell my cupcakes at various farmers markets,
art shows, and events at Gale's Garden Center in Westlake. I also cater
special orders, birthdays, showers, weddings, do custom designs, etc. I teach
cupcake baking & decorating classes as well.
I love the creativity of
inventing cupcake flavor combinations, baking them, and decorating them in
unique ways. My inspiration comes from other desserts (pastries, pies,
cookies, donuts, candies, international desserts, ice cream, drinks, seasonal,
fun and unique flavor combinations, etc.) that I can incorporate into a
cupcake. The next step is tweaking recipes to perfection and creating a unique
design for each one.
My mom is my partner, and was instrumental in helping
me begin "Alyssa's Cupcake Confections" 5 years ago. She handles the
business end, created my website, and is my decorating consultant.
I've always
loved baking desserts since I was a little girl. My mom and I would bake
and decorate tons of sugar cookie designs for parties at school. As I got
older, my passion for sweets grew. I took cake decorating and baking classes,
and developed a particular interest in cupcakes. I started bringing them
to the theater I used to act for, as well as family parties. They were always a
huge hit! I decided, on a whim, to try selling them at Crocker Park Farmers
Market. My table was mobbed and I sold all 200 cupcakes in 2 hours. Everyone
asked for a website, brochures or business cards. That day my business was
born.
The message
behind my work is to have fun with your choices, think outside the box, and be
creative. Anyone who has tried my cupcakes can tell how much I love doing
this, and take pride in their enjoyment of my flavors and designs. I think
that they should appeal to all of your senses. It is important to me that
they are very visually appealing, as well as have a wonderful smell and taste.
My favorite quote is, "To Enjoy the Flavor of Life Take Big Bites" Robert
Heinlien.
This
will be my second Avant -Garde Show. We were in last summer's show in
Westlake and loved it. We sold out before the end of the day. Becki
Cooper's shows are wonderful!
In five years, I
hope to have a small store front. In the meantime, please take a look at
my Website: www.cupcakesbyalyssa.com/, Flavor pages, Photos and Events page and come out and see us at our
next event! We will be updating the Events page in early February.
Meet Rosanne Demkowicz from Restorations by Rosanne…
I am a single
mother to a teenage daughter. I own my own business called
"Restorations by
Rosanne," where I repair and restore statues. I work on
anything from
garden gnomes and religious statuary, to fine art and
tchotkes. I
also enjoy landscape photography. I love to go hiking in the
park areas we
have here in the Cleveland area, and while I hike, I like to
snap photos of
the beauty I see around me. For fun, and stress relief, I
like to paint, and music has always been in my soul.
I have been
doing the statue restorations for three years, and I'’ve been
taking pictures
almost my whole life. I just got into showing and selling
my photography
at local art shows in the past year.
This will be my
first Avant-Garde show, but I have heard great things about
the shows and I
am really looking forward to being apart of it.
You know how
some people say that they don'’t have a creative bone in their
body? I think I
have 206 creative bones in my body. Creating art and
music are a
part of my being. If I couldn't paint, or take pictures, or
sing, I think I
would wither away and die. Everything around me inspires me,
especially the
beauty and majesty of nature.
The statue
restorations started off as helping a couple of neighbors with
repairs on
their garden statues. They loved my work and convinced me to
turn it into a
business. The selling of my photography was also the doing
of my friends
and family. They felt that my work was too good to keep to
myself, and I
needed some money. My therapist gave me an application for a
major art show,
I applied, and got in. Although sales were bad due to
super-hot
weather, I was bitten by the show bug.
I'’ve always enjoyed taking pictures. With
the dawn of the digital age and
the use of
editing software, I found new life and possibilities with my
photography. It
was my friends who discovered that I had a talent that
should be
shared with the world. If they hadn't nudged me into doing
shows, I would
have thousands of photographs sitting on my computer that
nobody would
ever see.
I don'’t know that I have a process really. I go
hiking and take my camera
along. If I see
something that I find beautiful or interesting, I snap a
picture. When I
get home and have time, I upload the pictures to my
computer and
use editing software to pick out the best areas of each shot.
Then,
sometimes, I play with the image through adjusting the color
saturation or
turning it black & white or sepia.
In five years,
I would love to open a store front in an historic shopping
district. It
would serve two purposes. Part of it would be a gallery for
my own artwork
and that of up-and-coming local artists. The other part of
the store would
house my restoration business with an open workshop area
where people
could watch me work on a restoration project. Of course, I
would still be
doing art shows around the area as well.
The message behind my work is to look around you
and find the beauty of the world around you.
Oftentimes I take pictures of small things that most people might overlook. There is
beauty
everywhere. As to my restoration work, my message is to be green. We need to stop
being a “disposable” society. Just because a statue may
be faded with
some minor damage, does not mean it needs to be added to a
landfill.
2013 West Side Spring Avant-Garde Art & Craft Show
Saturday & Sunday, March 23 & 24, 2013, 10:00am-5:00pm
Rocky River Memorial Hall
