“My Little Cupcake” was inspired by a photo that I took. I baked cupcakes for the children and we had a large table set up with all the treats.

Through all the laughter and excitement of the treats, this little girl stood out as she had a sense of sadness about her and tears in her eyes and the next moment there was a smile that appeared.

I wanted to capture this is my art I used acrylic paint with a monochrome colour scheme for the portrait. For the background, I used bright colours from a Ted Baker shopping bag to brighten up the mood of the little girl. The bag was cut into triangular shapes to form a kaleidoscope with two different colours. The colours represent movement and make you wonder what shape will be taken next if we were to rotate the cells to change the kaleidoscope. Becoming a symbol of what happens to us after the sadness and that the only thing that is constant is change. We might feel sad in one moment but that too shall pass.

Title: “My Little Cupcake”

Dimensions: 1000mm x 1000mm

Medium: Mixed Medium (Acrylic paint, Ted Baker Shopping Bag)

About the author, Mariska

Hi and welcome! My name is Mariska. I am originally from South Africa, but now call the world my home. I am an artist, designer, environmentalist, podcast host and speaker.

I started the Mama Earth Talk podcast in 2018 to share some of the things that I learned about just how easy it can be to reduce your impact on the environment. This then quickly grew into a forum that showcases the amazing things that many people are doing to make the planet better, and further into a source of hope and inspiration for many. A few of the amazing guests include Zero Waste Queen, Bea Johnson, Claude Silver, Kathryn Kellogg and zero waste chef Max La Manna.

If you do not already I urge you to follow me and my journey on social media (@designbymariska), and to refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle and rot your own waste using the handy tips I post!