artist spotlight
Art You Can Eat
By Nora McKeown
Not all works of art come from a pencil or paintbrush
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Evans and her husband, AJ
Instead of paintbrushes, pencils or paper, Evans’ art tools include piping bags, cookie cutters and sprinkles. And although she’s never received formal training, Evans has developed a wide range of decorating techniques through YouTube videos and a class she took at a small bakery in Powell. Having a creative eye, however, gives Carrie’s Cookies its own unique flair. “I do think it’s an art in terms of it being a way to express yourself and be creative,” Evans says. “Not everybody can do it because it does take a lot of patience and practice.” Evans’ process starts at the beginning of the week. First, she bakes cookies from scratch on Monday or Tuesday. Then, she pipes the background layer of icing onto the cookie and lets it sit for a
day to harden and solidify before adding more decoration on top. After the bottom layer has settled, she begins to decorate. With thinly piped outlines and watercolor-like ombre painted on the frosting or expertly placed sprinkles, each cookie design is carefully thought out and executed. The details vary from order to order, some clients asking for words or letters piped onto their cookies, some wanting specific images drawn on the cookies, while others give Evans the artistic liberty to create a work of art inside a theme. “It depends on the situation,” Evans says. “If somebody has an invitation and they want to mimic colors or certain designs, I’ll replicate those. Sometimes they say, ‘Be creative and come up with whatever.’” www.pickeringtonmagazine.com
Artwork courtesy of Carrie Evans
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hen Carrie Evans isn’t busy teaching math to middle schoolers in Columbus City Schools, she spends her time decorating homemade sugar cookies in her Pickerington home. “I’ve always been kind of artistic and creative,” Evans says. “It balances out my analytical and mathematical side.” At first, Evans decorated cookies for social events as a creative outlet. When a friend told Evans her cookies were good enough to sell, Evans figured she had nothing to lose. So, in 2015, Carrie’s Cookies was born. “I just do this out of my house,” Evans says. “So sometimes it feels weird calling it a business, but it has made me money and the cookies look good. Ultimately, it’s been something fun to do on the side.” She says her interest in creating art you can eat started as a child, when she and her mom, who worked as a cake decorator at Kroger before Evans was born, would decorate cakes together at home.
