A portrait of Theyyam made with confections

Kerala-based artist ‘Da Vinci’ Suresh’s 24-foot-tall ‘theyyam’-inspired portrait, made with cookies and other sweets, was on show at a bakery in Kannur

It took a little over 25,000 biscuits to make a 24-foot tall portrait of the theyyam. Artist ‘Da Vinci’ Suresh, who has been on a mission to create 100 portraits using non-traditional art material, created the artwork for Bake Story Live Bakery in Kannur. This is his 79th portrait.

After 15 hours of work that included putting together tables, drawing, sorting and stacking cookies, Suresh completed the portrait, which captures the incredibly nuanced face of the theyyam.

The mukhathezhuthu (face painting) of the theyyam, a traditional art form which has its origins in the Malabar region of Kerala, is extremely intricate. “I had to recreate each line and curve accurately. I had to research in order to get the patterns on the head gear and the face right,” says Suresh. Sketching took two to three hours. Then came sorting the confection according to colour, size and shape. “The initial idea was to use just cookies made at the bakery. But the artist had to use bread, buns, dried fruits, puffed rice, jalebis and laddoos to capture the complexity of the mukhathezhuthu,” says cook book author and chef consultant of the bakery, Rasheed Muhammed, who conceived the idea.