Sebastian Weetabix WHAT Cerealist Artist WHERE Kitchen Studio, east of Almonte SHOWS Not Yet; invitations welcome WHY "With my name, why not?"	Previous Artist Trading Cards

The Cerealist Art of Sebastian Weetabix
By Sally Hansen

Let's face it - with a name like Weetabix, it's not surprising that this month's featured artist cooked up an unusual multi-media format with which to express his creativity. Since 1990 Sebastian Weetabix has created in excess of a thousand sculptural portraits to amuse and nurture his wife Samantha.

Each morning Weetabix faces the daunting challenge of creating yet another cereal image to entice his reluctant spouse into eating a nutritious breakfast. "She gets bored very easily, and this was the only way I could persuade her to eat her cereal," he explains. "It also provides me with an outlet for my emotions, which I tend to have difficulty expressing in words."

Something about the range of emotions portrayed by his cereal creations makes me suspect that Weetabix is as skilled at "tongue-in-cheek" comments as he is in concocting "grapes-of-wrath" expressions.

The Fruits of his Labours
"One of the collateral benefits of my daily sculpting regimen is the pleasure I take in discovering new materials for my art," he tells me. An inveterate grocery store browser, Weetabix keeps currant by dropping into specialty food shops throughout his wide-ranging travels. "I can't look at a fruit counter without envisioning each item as the raw material for some facial feature." He has found that kiwi fruit slices make striking eyes, and that certain strawberries work better as noses while others are perfect as pouty lips.

During the interview, Weetabix cited the animation art of Richard Condie (e.g., The Big Snit) as a significant influence. My incurable addiction to web research yielded this very appropriate quote from Condie's website (www.awn.com/condie/bigsnit.html): "Hair with a mind of it's own, teeth with a slumber-time rattle, and eyes taken off to be shaken like a maraca, Condie imaginatively captures the surreal idiosyncrasies of a couple that are part of a very true-to-life tale - two people so deeply involved in their shared world that they fail to recognize the one outside." I get the feeling that Sebastian and Samantha have a lot in common with that couple.

Weetabix also admits to a penchant for protruding tongues. "The persona of a cereal sculpture changes drastically with the addition of a tongue sticking out," he deftly demonstrates, as he gently inserts a banana tongue between the Goldie-Hawn-like lips of his currant creation. I prudently resist the temptation to enquire just what emotion he is expressing.

Flushed with Success
For thirteen years the self-effacing Weetabix had kept his art cloistered within the confines of the family home, but eventually his wife, Samantha, couldn't resist sharing some of the many photographs she had taken over the years. "Sometimes I just couldn't stand the idea that Sebastian's edible art was so ephemeral. I got into the habit of always keeping film in the camera, and whenever he created a personality that just made me laugh out loud, I would snap a photo." But it was a poster conceived by his equally creative daughter and son-in-law that finally has exposed their father's intimate culinary art to a wider audience. Captioned Facing the Mueslix - The Cerealist Art of Sebastian Weetabix, the poster was a surprise gift to dad commemorating some of the family's favourite cereal sculptures.

theHumm is delighted to have stumbled upon this opportunity to introduce you to the stimulating art of Sebastian Weetabix. Should you be interested in purchasing the first of an on-going series of cerealist posters, please check Weetabix' link at our Humm Shopping Network website.