We’re in love with these celebrity portraits made out of food
Trading in traditional paints and brushes for whatever she can find in the kitchen, 23-year-old Jessie Bearden is taking “playing with your food” to the next level — and the results are absolutely delicious.
“I’ve always been inspired by the colors and textures of food at the grocery store, and one day I finally decided to act on it,” Bearden tells HelloGiggles. “For me creatively, it opens up so many more doors than simply paint on a canvas. And of course, it’s fun!”
So far, Bearden has “painted” everyone from Marilyn Monroe to The Notorious B.I.G., using foods ranging from melted ice cream to poppy seeds. Sometimes, the medium is also a nod to the person being portrayed: Caitlyn Jenner comes alive through a crushed up box of Wheaties cereal, and Adam Levine looks red carpet-ready in various shades of sugar.
“The process usually starts by picking the medium, then I try to connect that to an icon in some way,” she says. “I’m pretty picky about my ideas, which is why I post so few. I only like to present the images I feel have something special.”
Of course, Bearden is also a ridiculously talented artist in more traditional mediums, which can also be seen on her Instagram; but when those mediums begin to feel too limiting, she finds using food helps her mix things up.
“My poor roommates have gotten used to me filling our kitchen cabinets with large amounts of random food and tools,” she says.
Currently, Bearden is working on a few projects related to her Instagram work — including a recent campaign with McDonald’s in which she used coffee beans to create a McCafé display. She’s also co-directing a music video soon, which she hopes “will reflect the same creativity as [her] portraits, but on a larger scale.” We’re probably getting ahead of ourselves here, but we think a stop motion animation music video using food portraiture would be pretty darn incredible.
Check out a few of our favorite Bearden creations below, and more over at her Instagram.
(All images courtesy of Jessie Bearden.)
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