The idea to create portraits of renowned nerds from Nerds candies came as a result of the debt I owed Carol Zara. This one is taken from a somewhat iconic* image of Albert^ Einstein sticking his tongue out at the world.
*If you need to precede “iconic” with “somewhat,” it’s probably not iconic at all. I recognize this photo instantly, but I also expect everyone else to pick up on my Dick Tracy and ALF quotes…
^It’s Albert, right? Not Alfred? Both kinda sound correct, but the Internet is so slow today that I dare not leave this page to make certain.
Along with the Batman Gummies and M&M’S wrestlers, this is my third concurrent series of projects. It’s also the biggest sonovabitch I have ever dealt with. For one, the queer shape of every Nerd opens the door for a lot of figurative monkey-fucking-a-football action. Sometimes, the candies spray every which way, taking the craziest of hops as they splash off the counter onto the floor, never to be seen again.
It doesn’t help that Willy Wonka has gotten sloppy in his old age and a lot of purple Nerds wind up in the pink side of the box and vice versa. Speaking of the boxes, when I was a kid, they were easy to pry. There is NO WAY anyone can open a box of Nerds in 2012 without having the destroy the infrastructure of the compartment mechanism it employs. It’s like an Oompa Loompa dropped a gob of Gorilla Glue from space on every lid. I had to ravage these boxes to get at the sugar inside.
After 10 or 11 packages, I noticed a few Nerds candies that were clear, which at first look like shards of glass. I know they were Nerds, though, because I ate them, which in retrospect, was a dangerous proposition. (Anything in the name of science.) My hypothesis is that they somehow slipped through the cracks and never got colored. I can’t ever remember seeing that when I was a kid. I’m telling you, that Wonka, he’sa slippin’.
A few of the boxes I had to destroy.
Clean-up. Is. HORRIFIC. Like, mushroom cloud terrible. This piece took about 2 and a half hours to make and another 90 minutes to clean up, in order to keep purple and pink Nerds apart from each other. Effing brutal. Again, thanks to my patient girlfriend for helping with that.
In all, this is quickly going to become a series I am eager to finish and be rid of. The goal is six pieces. Two down.