11
January
2013
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00:00 AM
Europe/Amsterdam

Jelly Belly Masterpieces of Jelly Bean Art

FAIRFIELD, CALIF. -- In 2011, Jelly Belly Candy Company commissioned Northern Calif., artist Kristen Cumings to create large scale replicas of the world’s most famous works of art all made in mosaics of thousands of Jelly Belly® jelly beans.

Jelly Belly Art stands approximately four-feet-by-six-feet-tall and is made with 9,000-14,000 Jelly Belly jelly beans. The Masterpiece Collection includes:

  • American Gothic (original by Grant Wood)
  • Girl with a Pearl Earring (original by Johannes Vermeer)
  • The Great Wave off Kanagawa (original by Katsushika Hokusai)
  • Mona Lisa (original by Leonardo da Vinci)
  • The Starry Night (original by Vincent van Gogh)
  • We Can Do It! (original by J. Howard Miller)
  • Woman with a Mango (original by Paul Gauguin)
  • Young Blonde Girl (original by Pierre-Auguste Renoir)

The exhibition has traveled around the United States. The first exhibition appeared at the Indianapolis Children’s Museum, followed by COSI: the Center of Science and Industry in Columbus, Ohio, and the Reading Library in Pennsylvania. When the pieces are not touring, they can be viewed at the Jelly Belly Visitor Center in Fairfield, Calif.

In 2010 Jelly Belly art earned the Guinness World Record for the largest candy art. The 39-foot-long art piece made of 629,000 Jelly Belly beans was on display at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, China.

Jelly Belly Candy Company has long been associated with art made completely of jelly beans. The brainchild of San Francisco artist Peter Rocha, the first bean art was completed in 1982 and was a portrait of President Ronald Reagan. Taking over six months to complete, Rocha painstakingly dipped each bean in glue and placed it in a mosaic pattern.

In 2009 Kristen Cumings was commissioned to make a tribute to the California grizzly bear. This 6-foot tall portrait, made of 14,000 Jelly Belly beans, was the first Jelly Belly Art piece to bemade in public, when the artist created it over several weeks at the “It’s a Candy Nation” exhibit at the California State Fair.

The entire collection of Jelly Belly Art can be viewed online at the Jelly Belly Art Gallery, and includes celebrity portraits and other iconic images created using Jelly Belly jelly beans. 

Tags: Jelly Belly Art