A picture of sweetness

There are numerous tales surrounding Mona Lisa’s mysterious smile, but perhaps none so sweet as the story of the one involving Kristen Cumings, of Martinez, who has created a quite stunning meticulous rendition of Da Vinci’s famous masterpiece entirely out of JELLY BELLY JELLY BEANS.

Cumings has been a Martinez resident since 2004. Prior to her move, she and her husband resided in San Francisco. A native of Indiana, Kristen attended Wheaton Conservatory, where she majored in music. She began painting with acrylics after giving up the French horn, though the paintings were mainly for friends and family members. One friend, who works for Jelly Belly, told Cumings the company was looking for a jelly bean artist. She pursued the position and has been busy ever since.

Although Cumings states that she is “more of a chocolate person,” she, her children and their friends love Jelly Bellys. So far she has been able to resist eating the beans while working with them, but she admits, “when I’m standing back to look the piece over I might snack a bit … but they’re only like four calories a piece, so it’s not that bad.” When asked what her favorite bean flavor is, Kristen had to think for a moment. “I go through phases … right now it’s probably Juicy Pear, but I really got into Sour Cherry during my last piece.”

Cumings’s most famous work of art currently is the 4’ by 6’ rendition of the Mona Lisa. Both Cumings and the piece were featured recently on the Rachael Ray Show. “It was really surreal,” she recalled on Wednesday, “it felt like I was living someone else’s life. But it was a fun trip.”

The show also featured her portrait of a California grizzly bear, which she put together over three or four weekends at the State Fair last August. She recalls the process being, “somewhat tedious, people kept coming by and asking questions, it was hot, my glue started melting … but I was right next to the candy place, so it smelled good.”

Aside from the grizzly bear illustration, all of Cumings’s pieces have been put together in her garage in Martinez. An average Jelly Belly piece uses 14,000 to 16,000 beans, depending on the size, and typically a palette of 25 to 30 colors of beans. Fortunately for her, Jelly Belly provides all of the beans. The entire art process, including finding and cropping an image and picking out the beans, takes between 150 and 200 hours.


Article posted by Spencer Samaroo, Managing Director, Moo-Lolly-Bar
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Source and picture taken from the Martinez Gazette.