Recycled Celebrities by Jason Mecier

Jason has spent over 10 years creating outrageous 3-D mosaic portraits of his favorite pop culture icons. Each portrait is created from the celebrities own discarded objects and junk such as broken sunglasses, make-up, gum wrappers, jewelry, deodorant, shoes, and other items. Famous faces like Lady Gaga, Andy Warhol, Pink, Donald Trump, The White Stripes and a lot more have been chiseled out of trash.

Jason Mecier lives and works in San Francisco. He fervently hopes one day to trade art with Marilyn Manson, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Jane Seymour and Yoko Ono.

Curio: Rich Pellegrino's Portraits

"Marty McFly" gouache
on hardboard, 5 x 7

Alexa here with your weekly art appreciation.

Nathaniel shared a link to this artist's work with me and I just had to blog it. Rich Pellegrino is a painter, RISD graduate, and child of the 80s. He paints in watercolor, acrylic, or gouache, straight out of the tube, creating richly textured portraits that are almost musical. ("I want a brush stroke to sound like a distorted A chord. You know -- something loud and visceral.")

It's not surprising that many of his subjects are musicians, but he's also inspired by film (especially the work of Guillermo Del Toro, who he calls a master of color and light).

Here is a selection of some of his colorful film characters. You can buy prints at his shop, too!

"Jack" (from The Darjeeling Limited) and "Audrey"

"Willy Wonka" and "Sobchak"

(Both from Gallery 1988 Crazy4Cult Group Show)

"Rosario Dawson/Zooey Dechanel"