We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Aniya Reed a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Aniya, so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.
I keep my creativity alive by staying creative . I am a very observant curious person I’m always wanting to know how would something look in art form . For example I am a cake artist at times I make realistic food cakes just for fun so if I see a banana split icecream I’ll then do the entire icecream over in cake form . Another way I stay creative is living in color , I HAVE A CRAZY OBSESSION FOR COLOR . colors speak through me and for me . I found ways to say things in color without saying it . On my free time I go to different art galleries & museums , or I download coloring apps on my phone , also painting . I am heavily inspired by takashi murakami he’s a Japanese artist , Mira mikati , and the list goes on .
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
Hello my name is Aniya reed I’m from Brooklyn NYC . I am a cake decorator / cake artist , I’m the baker & the decorator , how cool is that ? I specialize in a lot of children’s theme cakes . I’ve been baking for 7yrs now all together . I first started baking back in 2016 after giving birth to my daughter . I didn’t officially go into business until 2017 so 2017 was the real start to my creative business . Along my journey I had a few hardships , but with my level of passion I was able to overcome that . I’ve met some amazing cake artist who became family , I’ve met a number of supportive people who supported me because of my passion and creativity . I’ve been featured in a few voyage articles , as well as competitions , and also been in news paper articles in my neighborhood . Also featured 3 times for linkNYC kiosk billboard .
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I’m going to be super fair & honest LOVE What you do . And I put love in capital letters because you have people who have jobs , and don’t really like it but because it makes them money they do it . As for me I’m super passionate about it I love what I do I make myself proud as well as my clients and people who inspire me . When it comes down to me learning I will research , I will practice , & I will invest in myself
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I’m always looking to work with other cake artist or just artist in general . Here’s how I see it I do cake art what’s a event without cake . I feel like at some point I can help out in many ways because I’m creative and I always have an idea followed up by 20 more ideas . For example if I would love to collab with takashi murakami just because he’s a contemporary artist . I’m a cake artist it may be a figurine he’d create and I would make the figurine over in cake form .
Contact Info:
- Instagram: CreativeCakeBar
