Ryan: CAKEventure Part I - a series

“My eyes are starving for beauty! “ Andre Leon Talley to Vera Wang, The September Issue (2009)

My name is Ryan, and I am Jennifer's nephew, have been for all my life.

I, like my aunt, like my family, come from a long line of painters. There is a story to that, a story that may get corrected as family stories do by each generation, both those before and those after, but we haven't always been sign painters... go back far enough, to the origins of our family name and it means “Small House with Shingles and or Shutters”... which I take to mean that we were not rich, but we were by no means poor (I am sure shingles and or shutters were very expensive back then). When my family came to this country we were building carriages, and as the times were prosperous carriages became fancier and fancier and our family started to do hand pin stripping on the sides of the carriages. This began a passion for the brush, a passion for making and creating that still has not work its way out of our systems through all these generations.

As times are changing so much, I think we all find ourselves expressing these passions in different ways. It was my mother's choice (and gift to me) that I would not follow with the family business and be a sign painter like so many before me. She really gave me a gift to dream. To be anything I want. To express myself in so many different ways... so much so that somedays I think it will take a life time just to figure it all out. And with such a wonderful and support family I had the talents and love to do anything.

Although I do love to paint, I have been taught many family crafts from baking, to sewing, to furniture making (everyone remember that white leather sofa I made? Sure it had some nails sticking out of it here and there, but you couldn't see them from the front!) . I love to learn and try new things.

My current passion (I don't like to call them phases because they all build on each other in some way... even that brief stint with Live Art Performances.... oh, only in Montreal) is Cakes! Well, I should say, Cakes, Cupcakes, Cookies... you get the idea. So I decided that in order to bring some worlds together for myself I would enrol in a “WILTON CAKE DECORATING COURSE”... and I say that with all of the Marketing that backs it up... cause that seems to be a sizeable part of it.

It seemed neat. I had looked over a bit of information online about, and had done some deep soul searching (was I ready for cakes? *thoughtful pause*  Was I ready for a structured learning environment? *pensive pause*  Was I ready to give up regular Tuesday Night TV? *dramatic pause* At least for four weeks? I guess I was), so I tried to enrol in the class... the website had said something along the lines of “Show up the day before to enrol for the Class” like a friendly neighbour telling you to just drop by when you have the time. How much better could it be? Anyway, after finding that classes were booked up for the next two months I finally got into a class which started this week.

I am actually just back from my first class. It was a bit of a rush to get home from work get all my supplies and hustle myself off to class but I got it all done (sandwich in hand running out the door). Its late here now so I will have to try to make another entry in the next couple of days to tell you all about it.

Thanks to my wonderful and beautiful Aunt Jennifer for giving me this opportunity to guest blog my CAKEventure.

- Ryan