Recently I saw an interesting article on GQ Brasil,the Brazilian version of the American magazine, that read “Artista americana recria telas clássicas da pintura com balas de goma” which means “American artist recreates classic painting with jelly beans.” The photos are interesting as she recreates Van Gogh's Starry Night, Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Hokusai's Great Wave, Gauguin's Woman with Mango, Renoir's Young Blonde Girl, and my personal favorite Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring. The article was quite concise, so I wanted to ask you guys what you think. Does recreating previous masterpieces with jelly beans really make it art? Just to mention, the artist Kristen Cuming said that it takes about 100 hours to make, and some contain about 12,000 jelly beans. So, her patience recreating these masterpieces might be an art form in itself.
When I was reading this article it reminded me of the recent artist from Denver, Andy Bell, who decided to recreate George Zimmerman's mugshot by creating a 3ft by 4ft mugshot made entirely of Skittles. If you're not sold already, the work was named “Fear Itself.” It seems that recreating art with candy has become a trend, even as you can see used to make a social statements. The work by Bell has already received offers to be purchased. What do you guys think? Are Bell's recreations more or less art than Cuming's?
If you're just a person with a sweet-tooth and an eye for art, the next article might be more comfortable. Looking for the portrait of Zimmerman I stumbled upon this article from a website that showcased a few more art works made of candy which includes Barrack Obama made of Cheerios, Warhol's Monroe made of Smarties, Van Gogh's Self Portraiture made of tofu and other Chinese ingredients, and of course you can have an artistic expression without the chocolate Mona Lisa.Don't like candy? Then I have a few other articles from GQ Brasil that you might like.
And if you liked everything, perhaps you can occasionally check the culture section of the Portuguese magazine because it has quite a few interesting articles dealing with art. You'll just have to allow Google Chrome to translate the page for you. Unless you speak Portuguese.