Kylie and Sukanto: A Collabogram of Myth and Modernity

Do mermaids take selfies? In our second installment of Collabograms (check out the first installment here), culinary artist Kylie and illustrator Sukanto merge their skills to create a playful and delicious piece of art – a towering cake topped with mythical mermaids…taking selfies.

Explore the mythical and modern masterpiece from our next pair of artists as they draw, design, and bake up some creativity with their “Mermaids Cake.”

Mermaids

These mythical creatures represent a lot of different themes for Kylie and Sukanto. Mermaids have fascinated humankind for centuries with their alluring beauty, unusual anatomy, and mild narcissism. For these reasons, the artists decided that mermaids would be the perfect subjects to sit atop the cake, their own edible island.

Inspired by the Ace of Cakes, Kylie Mangles says, “the first big carved 3D cake I created was for an online cake competition called Threadcakes. I made most of it up as I went along and now, when I look back at my crazy structure, it blows my mind that it even stayed together, but I won third place and I was hooked!” Since then, she has become a full-time culinary artist, finding inspiration from daily life, cartoons, and children’s books.

Sukanto Debnath says, “I always wanted to be a painter, a traditional easel painter. I was never good at anything else, so that choice was rather simple and clear.” But when he began studying fine art in school, he discovered a love for animation as well. Over time, his skill set evolved to include digital drawing, character design, and illustration.