KOCHI: It was a new turn in life for Megna Santhosh, an artist and photographer, when she returned to her native Kadavanthra from New Delhi during the lockdown. A lover of food and frames, she found that there is a scope for promoting art when it is combined with good food.
Megna developed her own brand ‘Nutcracker’ for peanut butter lovers. “We use peanut butter as a channel to combine mixed media, stop motion, graphics & food photography. And the important part of it is that we do it ourselves. Today, we have found budding artists in India who are digital artists, musicians and fashion designers who are willing to combine food and art. For instance, the tagline “Peanut butter smooth as paint,” she said.
The lockdown was also a period of misery for the artists, who found it difficult to meet their sellers and suffered financially. To help support such artists, the sisters, Megna and Annov Santhosh formed a collaboration of artists who combine food and art and promote them.
“We tried with food photography and publication of coffee table books. Being a photographer, I was always intrigued by the colours and textures in fresh ingredients. In my own venture, Secrets of the Spice Coast, I used vibrant colours of Kerala’s cuisine to create a series of sets and photographs. After moving to Kerala from Delhi, my continuous experience mixing and matching food and art pushed my sister and I to start Nutcracker peanut butter,” Megna says.
The artists who collaborated with the sisters are: Men’s apparel designer Ojuswani Gupta, fluid artist Anya Vishagh, digital illustrator Shivranjani Tomar, AR artist Eshant Gandhi, print media artist Sachika Taneja and Manga and digital artist Tanisha Aggarwal.
The orders can be made in bulk or as single pieces, but there is only one standard size (250gm) for the jar. The customer can choose the artwork to be done on the jar. If the order is in bulk, the same work would be printed into copies and used on the jars. The peanut butter is 100 per cent natural and healthy, claim the sisters.Find them on instagram @nutcrackerpeanutbutter