This story is reprinted from the Children's Museum of Indianapolis Blog.
Friday, April 8, 2011, by Angie McNew
Matt
Anderson here, Jelly Belly® artist-in-residence
at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis! No,
I’m not the one who made the famous art
recreations in the
Masterpieces of Jelly Bean Art
exhibit that opens April 9th, but I have created
some pieces of my own. Just yesterday I finished
this masterpiece of Rex.
My first work of "bean" art was made merely on a
whim when a friend of mine mentioned that he and
his fiancée were planning a candy-themed wedding
reception. Without really thinking, I blurted:
“Do you want me to make a portrait of the two of
you out of Jelly Bellys??” (And yes, I blurted
it with two question marks.) Only later did I
realize I had no clue how to actually do it.
So,
like any artist worth their beans, I
experimented. I sketched onto a large piece of
foam board the picture I wanted to reproduce,
then lugged the whole thing to Super Target’s
candy section where I literally poured out Jelly
Bellys by the hundreds to see how many of each
color I’d need for the various sections. (This
resulted in many comments from customers, and
one very baffled employee.) Finally, I
“painted” areas with glue and just started
sticking Jelly Bellys on, one Belly at a time.
And let me tell you: it takes a LOT of Bellys.
In fact, I’d always wondered exactly how many...
so for this new piece, I decided to actually
count as I worked. The total? 5,615!! I used
22 flavors, ranging from coconut (by far the
most, at 2,223 beans) to sour grape (only 4
beans). Rex alone is made up of 1,837 beans,
including four different shades of green
(watermelon, green apple, sour apple, and 7up).
The museum logo (blueberry, kiwi, and licorice)
contains 334 beans. The whole thing weighs 20
pounds, almost 14 from the beans alone!
Well, I should probably sign off here and “get
rid of” some of these leftover jelly beans. As
for you, stop by
The Children’s Museum April 9-June 1 to
check out the official Jelly Belly® masterpieces
on display. You’ll see American Gothic, Starry
Night, the Mona Lisa... some as large as 5.5
feet on a side! (Imagine how many beans it took
to make those...) See you there!
