Piñata Panadería - Julie Beltrán

I think my tik tok algorithm has been working overtime to show me the exact content I've been searching for. Not too long ago while scrolling I came across the account Piñata Panadería, a Los Angeles-based piñata confectionery. Julie Beltrán is the genius behind the this account and Etsy shop that goes by the same name. She is a first generation Mexican-American, with both of her parents being from Jalisco. When speaking about how this impacts her art she said, " My identity definitely impacts my art. I love making art that takes up space, large ceramics pieces and 3-tiered cake piñatas. Just getting into piñata making was very inspired by my Latinidad. Taking something that typically is made to be destroyed and making it something that is meant to be displayed and treasured."

The first piece of her's that initially caught my attention was the strawberry sandwich piñata which looks exactly like a strawberry sando or Japanese fruit sandwich. It perfectly encapsulates ~kawaii y latina.~ I was also absolutely losing my mind when she sent over a picture of her workstation and it was just so insanely cool. The framed movie memorabilia next to collages adorned with small keepsakes, the candelabra with the perfectly mismatched candles, and the perfectly stacked rolls of streamers come together in her workspace that just oozes with personality!

 All of Julie's pieces are incredibly cute and have so much attention to detail. This is what she had to say about how she got into this specific medium, "I paint and I love ceramics and working with clay so up until I picked up making piñatas I usually expressed myself creatively through those mediums. However, ceramics is a very expensive medium and paintings can take me months to finish so I wanted to find something that would be cheaper to construct and was less time consuming to complete. I followed a TikTok artist (The Piñata Mom) who made piñatas and that planted the seed of interest. I would describe my art style as maximalist, kitschy and vibrant."

When I first came across Piñata Panadería, I was thinking of how I want to snag one of Julie's piñatas just to keep on display as decor. So it was no surprise to see that Julie's eye-catching work was included in a Valentine's Day store display for the clothing retailer LoveShackFancy. Julie's upcoming projects include a piñata inspired by pineapple upside down cake and a strawberry tart piñata. You can find her on both Instagram and TikTok @PinataPanaderia and check out her Etsy shop is Piñata Panadería.