For February’s Art Project, we will be creating royal candy crowns inspired by the sugary sweet wonderland of artist Will Cotton’s imagination and his portrait titled Lollipop Crown now on display in Contemporary Expressions, Prints from Flying Horse Editions (1996 – 2021). Having studied at both Cooper Union and the Academy of Art in New York, Cotton is known for his realistic female figures surrounded by sugary landscapes – living in a world where sweets are the only form of clothing and decoration. His works are inspired by a mix of the board game Candy land, the 1930s – 1950s pin-up posters of George Petty, the academic drawings of William Adolphe Bouguereau and the landscapes of Frederic Edwin Church of mid to late 1800s, as well as the work of 1700s Rococo Artists like Jean-Honoré Fragonard and Dutch Masters like Johannes Vermeer of the 1600s. While the figures may live in a made-up world, Cotton emphasizes the realistic qualities of his characters and the world of candy. Cotton says, “…the world we construct within our heads is not uninteresting, but it is not as interesting as real life.” Step 1: Start by building your crown. Take your paper head piece, and gently pull out the tissue middle piece, so that it is just a hand band. Step 2: Next, take the heaviest lollipops, like rock candies or Tootsie Pops, and duct tape them inside wherever you would like. Remember to test the weight of your crown before you add too much! You many need to reinforce the crown with a full strip of duct tape inside. Step 3: Now, take the cupcake liners and arrange them into an overlapping pattern around the outside of your crown. Make sure they are centered and cover all sides of the crown. Once you have position them where you like, glue them in place. Step 4: Next, glue smaller candies into a decorative space on your crown to create unique patterns. Use the candies like jewels! Have fun using your creativity, your favorite colors or a favorite pattern to inspire your royal crown.
Free