"I started to get interested in art basically since I was born, since my father is an artist. And since my family owns a restaurant, I started making art with food," the 32-year-old artist told Bored Panda how it started. Today, Fatica is one of the best food artists you'll meet and has titles of the world’s first and only truffle sculptor and the sculptor of the world’s largest watermelon carving to his name.
Fatica says he loves classic Roman and Greek sculpture, but he mostly draws inspiration from Japanese manga and points out Kentaro Miura as his main source of inspiration.
We asked the artist what inspires him to create his sculptures that are often infused with pop culture, horror, and fantasy. "For my invented sculptures I don't think too much of it; inspiration comes on its own. It happens that I get up in the morning, have a thing in my mind, make a sketch, and have it done," Fatica said, adding that bringing his ideas to life is actually the most challenging and the most rewarding part of his job.
Fatica can work with almost any food and turn it into something amazing you'd have to look twice at to notice it's actually made from edible material. We asked what food is Fatica's favorite to work with.
"I don't really have a favorite, but I like watermelon because it's the most difficult fruit to carve; cheese, because I get to eat the parts that remain; the coffee because it doesn't decompose, so I can keep it forever, or also sell. The one I love less is pumpkin because it's the easiest and the most popular vegetable to carve."
Carving realistic sculptures from food is not the most popular form of art—nevertheless, it requires the same dedication and time. We asked Fatica how long the carving process takes."
It always depends on which material and subject I choose. It can take from 6 to 30 hrs. The only thing that stops me from using more time is the fact that food decomposes. On materials that are different from food, such as stone, wood, etc., it depends. The process is divided into 4 parts: getting the idea, making the sketch, doing the sculpture, and making the video." The artist shares time-lapse videos of his sculpting process on his Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, so check them out to see how it's done.
Fatica says one of his favorite sculptures he has made is a Marvel character, Venom, carved from watermelon: "It's a real show to watch. I love it because you could immediately see it was a watermelon, but at the same time, you could realize it took a lot of work for its details."
Fatica has built a following of 43.3k people on Instagram, almost 20k on Facebook, and has 29.7k subscribers on YouTube where one of his videos went viral with 2.6M views.
"I usually get a lot of positive feedback from people who admire and support my art. Just a few times it happened that someone was saying that it is a waste of food."
If you appreciate Fatica's work as much as these people, make sure to support his art by visiting his online store and purchasing his sculptures.
Lastly, Fatica had some personal advice for any upcoming artists: "In the first place, if you want to make it, you have to work hard, constantly, all the time. And most of all, you have to think about a good marketing campaign, especially on the internet, because you could have the best idea in the world, but if you don't know how to sell it, you won't go far."
