Jacqueline Poirier is an artist in Toronto. She paints with porcelain paint on porcelain plates. She often then photographs her plates against their original subjects. On Instagram she calls herself The Crazy Plate Lady.
Poirier is now the artist-in-residence at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Toronto, where her work is on permanent display. That's an impressive promotion because she originally started as a server. In an interview with The Chic Canuck, Poirier explained:
I was hired at The Ritz-Carlton in Toronto as a server approximately 3.5 years ago. My manager at the time had come to see me paint at Art Battle and was impressed with my work. He came up with the concept of painting on a couple of the beautiful white charger plates we had in the restaurant. The painted plates ended up looking really nice on the tables so I just went with it! I received really great feedback from guests at the restaurant, realizing that I could potentially sell my custom designs. I ended up painting over 120 plates in about 2 months (all unique and completely different images). They're now a signature part of TOCA restaurant. From TOCA I have been able to start up my own “Plart” business, creating custom designed plates for all sorts of occasions.
Sometimes Poirier creates optical illusions with her plates that confuse your perceptions of reality:
She also creates portraits on plates and, when possible, photographs her subjects holding them. Here's actor Morgan Freeman with his plate:
-via My Modern Met