Painter of nuts

Steve Casino found a peanut one fine afternoon. He gently cracked it open but did not eat it. Instead, the 50-year-old toy inventor decided to paint a face on the peanut shell. That was the beginning of what would be a hobby and a lucrative second profession for this American artist. Steve makes tiny portraits of celebrities and pop-culture personalities on the outer brittle shells of peanuts. His videos of the making of these little pieces of art are popular on social media. Each peanut is transformed into a meticulous portrait of James Bond, Game of Thrones characters, Frankstein and even musicians such as Trent Reznor and Elvis Presley.

Steve’s introduction to the world of art was as a kid. “My uncle was an illustrator.  I was totally fascinated by the fact that he could draw anything ranging from caricatures to product renderings. From the earliest age, I was aware that art was a career option and that somehow I would be doing it,” he shares.

The journey since then has been a very bumpy ride, Steve reveals. “I’ve had many different jobs ranging from making fake food for TV commercials to designing toys. The jobs would become boring, and then I would quit or get fired and try something else till peanuts happened! But all the cumulative experience gave me a crazy variety of skills that I now apply to my sculptures,” he says with a smile.

The painter of nuts however did not see a potential business opportunity and used to paint nuts just for fun. “I never really intended this to have value as art until Trent Reznor hired me to make them for his whole family.  He actually helped me see the business potential, because at that point I was just making them for fun,” he says.

Painting a peanut isn’t as simple as it sounds. To begin with, Steve studies images of the person he will paint. The next step is finding the right peanut.

“I may have to sift through hundreds of nuts before I find the perfect one. The process has changed over time, but the basic research remains the same. I choose a person to make a portrait of, then find a peanut that I feel embodies that person the best,” he shares.

Once the perfectly shaped peanut is found, the nut inside is extracted, and the shell is glued back together to prep it as a canvas. “Limbs and various amounts of clay are added to accentuate the portraits. Then I paint it with acrylics.” The whole process for one miniature size portrait can range from 10-20 hours depending on how detailed the piece is.

From musicians such as the Beatles and astronauts to cricketers, Steve has done it all. How does he decide on a particular theme? “I experiment a lot and change my mind every hour about almost everything. Initially, I was just making peanut art of celebrities that I liked. But as the art got popular, people hired me to make their favourite celebrities.

“For example, I was never a big fan of Jimi Hendrix before being hired to make a peanut of him. But as I worked on it, I listened to his albums and I’m now a complete lover of his music,” says Steve who sells each of these portraits at 275 dollars.  

The widely popular and loved comic strip by Charles Schulz’s Peanuts is a perfect expression of self, ever made through art, Steve believes. “I’ve loved it from as early as I can remember. He told this profound story of his own life with art and words. Both of them combined to create this language that deeply affected me more than either could do separately. My peanuts are pale in comparison to his Peanuts,” he  adds.