Wichita sculptor captures Mahomes, Shakespeare and Rosie the Riveter in Oreo art

There’s a popular online test that matches personality traits to how people eat Oreos — like, do you eat the inside first or consume it all in one bite? — but not one of the 10 questions asks about making art with the cookies.

That’s what Wichita resident Jan Hoop has been doing lately while quarantining at home, and she’s been sharing her work to the delight of friends and fans on Facebook.

Hoop’s new hobby started after she saw a friend post a Facebook photo of someone else’s Oreo art.

“So I’m not a pioneer.”

For her first Oreo-as-art Facebook post on March 24 — before she planned for it to become a daily thing — Hoop tried copying an Oreo Greek god someone else made and posted her results beside it.

“Mine looks more like Abraham Lincoln.”

The next day, she created an Oreo Santa Claus.

“My work is done here,” Hoop wrote on Facebook. “I’m starting to eat all our supplies.”

Except she was getting a lot of likes and comments, and it made her think.

“This must be making people happy.”

Hoop decided she wanted to continue.

“I thought well, if it’s making people smile, let’s go with that. I think we all want to do something right now.”

Around the same time Hoop started the Oreo art, so did the state’s stay-home order to combat the coronavirus outbreak.

“I thought well, what if I did it for 30 days?”

Since then, she’s created a variety of Oreo art, such as Rosie the Riveter, Shakespeare, the Wichita flag and various school mascots. She posted a Jayhawk and Wildcat on the same day instead of one ahead of the other.

“I didn’t want to catch a bunch of grief.”

Hoop’s personal favorites are also the ones that seem to have resonated the most with people: a bust of Patrick Mahomes and a nurse wearing a mask.

“That one got a lot of likes.”

Now she’s getting requests, such as one for the Steelers’ logo, and suggestions.

“Maybe you can carve Fauci’s face on an Oreo!!” one person put online.

Another said, “Hope you are freezing these so you can have a Show one Final/First Friday!”

Hoop is not taking political requests. She said she wants to stay positive so others will as well.

“Whatever makes ‘em feel good.”

‘This art thing’

Hoop wasn’t always an artist.

She taught at Circle High School for seven years and then in Valley Center for 29 years.

As she prepared to retire 13 years ago at the relatively young age of 56, Hoop said she began to worry about how she would spend her time.

“It kind of freaked me out.”

There was an art room across the hall from her room, so Hoop started taking art classes with freshmen.

“I thought, I’m going to pursue this art thing.”

In retirement, she took wood carving and sculpting classes at various places. Hoop said she loved sculpting but had to quit because it hurt her back.

“It made me really, really sad.”

Since then, she’s been walking, gardening and volunteering.

“All the fun things old retired people do.”

Then came the idea for the Oreo art.

“I could do that in the living room in my chair,” Hoop said she thought.

She joked that her “recliner is where all of the magic happens.”

First, Hoop draws a design on a cookie and then takes cream and builds it up.

“I kind of treat it like clay,” she said. “That’s how we sculpt, too.”

Initially, Hoop used “a toothpick and little bitty, tiny flat-head screwdriver.”

Then she added a tiny paint brush, water and acrylic paint to her arsenal.

“Who knew you could use acrylic paint on an Oreo cream?” Hoop said. “That cream kind of gets a little bit hard.”

A Colorado cousin sent her an order of 120 Oreos, which Hoop said greatly helped since she was going through quite a few cookies to make one design.

“Mahomes probably took four cookies.”

It takes Hoop about three or four hours per cookie design.

“I kind of work on it in spurts.”

She saves broken Oreos in a separate bag from fresh ones.

“I don’t want to waste these cookies.”

While Hoop confesses to eating some of them, she said, “I’m kind of tired of Oreo cookies right now.”

She said her partner “is getting a little bit tired of picking up Oreo cream off the floor.”

“Sometimes she thinks I should get up and dust something.”

So what will Hoop do after the 30 days are up?

“It kind of scares me a little bit,” she said. “I don’t sit very well.”

She said she figures she’ll probably keep creating, and she said she knows what her friends would say.

“There goes Hoop again.”

This story was originally published April 9, 2020 at 4:47 AM.