{"id":409,"date":"2014-10-31T00:21:46","date_gmt":"2014-10-31T00:21:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tmn.truman.edu\/detours\/?p=409"},"modified":"2020-10-21T04:14:45","modified_gmt":"2020-10-21T04:14:45","slug":"creating-sweet-art-st-louis-painter-balances-art-with-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmn.truman.edu\/detours\/2014\/10\/31\/creating-sweet-art-st-louis-painter-balances-art-with-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating Sweet Art: St. Louis Painter Balances Art with Family"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nCbabi Bayoc and his wife Reine own SweetArt<\/a>, a bakeshop and art gallery in the Tower Grove neighborhood of St. Louis. Reine provides the treats, keeping the display cases stocked with cakes, cookies and cupcakes while Cbabi provides the art. His paintings \u2014 a father doing his daughter\u2019s hair, children hanging on their father\u2019s arm, a group of kids playing tug of war \u2014 decorate the walls of the shop.<\/p>\n

Cbabi graduated with an art degree from Grambling State University in Louisiana during 1995, but he got his breakthrough as an artist in an unlikely place. He says his art career was \u201chit and miss\u201d until he landed a job at Six Flags St. Louis during 1997. He spent his days there drawing caricatures, and at night he taught himself how to paint those same caricatures on canvas. This led to a job as an illustrator at \u201cRap Pages,\u201d an old hip-hop magazine. Soon he had an offer to do an album cover, and other commercial work followed.<\/p>\n

When Cbabi and Reine opened SweetArt during 2008, Cbabi\u2019s artwork took a backseat to the new business.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we first opened, I was helping with dishes, doing lunch, sometimes the counter,\u201d Cbabi says. \u201cBeing here all day and running around, the days are hectic. And having kids \u2014 it was just a lot going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recently, Cbabi has been able to devote more time to his artwork. During 2012, he came up with a project called \u201c365 Days with Dad.\u201d Every day for a year, he painted a different image of a black father and posted it on his Facebook page. As a black artist, Cbabi says he tries to be intentional about what he paints because black images are still relatively new.<\/p>\n