Printshop celebrating 50 years with a ‘cake off’ battle

St. Michael’s Printshop takes on a new art form — food — in a cake-decorating showdown. The print shop is celebrating 50 years of creativity.

Madeline Westcott
Kicker

ST. JOHN’S – St. Michael’s Printshop celebrated half a century of creativity with a cake off at its downtown art exhibit on Wednesday.

Employees, artists and community members were invited to showcase their artistic side through a different medium – cake decorating.

Cake decorating has become a friendly competition among the employees. The tradition started in 2021 when Christeen Francis, executive director, baked a cake for a colleague’s birthday. 

Francis said it’s a way to pay homage to each other and, in the past, they have decorated cakes to mimic each other’s artwork. 

 “For Margaret (Joba-Woodruff’s) birthday, I did a water-colour icing rendition. . . and some bunchberries that she really likes to use in her work,” said Francis.

The competition was hosted at the shop’s art exhibit, Emerging Along Coastal Margins, located at 235 Water St. This exhibit features work by print shop’s Don Wright scholars. Creative pieces cover the gallery’s walls to showcase 34 years of the scholarship, named after one of its founders.

The one-year scholarship is awarded to emerging artists and was established in memory of Don Wright, who co-founded St. Michael’s Printshop with Heidi Oberheide in 1972.

Margaret Joba-Woodruff, an American artist, moved to St. John’s for the one-year scholarship in 2022-2023 but ended up staying longer than planned. 

“I very much love this place,” Joba-Woodruff said. “. . . I feel very grateful to have spent, like, a solid amount of time here.”

Blending art with baking isn’t easy, but it’s all in good fun.

Levana Katz is used to showing off her artistic skills but joked about feeling like a sham as an artist because of how her cake looked.

“You should have seen me today, almost not presenting my cake,” said Katz, the 2023-2024 Don Wright scholar.

Wright, originally from Ontario, moved to Newfoundland to work as an art specialist and became a big influence on the development of visual arts in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The scholarship was first awarded in 1991. It is designed to allow the scholars space, support and dedicated time to develop their practice.

 

Emily Pittman, an emerging artist from Labrador, is the 2024-2025 scholar. Her Leaping Hares is an art piece of stone lithography on quilted cotton.

Next up for her, Pittman will have a solo exhibition this coming fall.

The gallery will include a collection of the artist’s work created during the one-year residency.