Philadelphia-based artist Alex Queral carves the faces of celebrities into phone books, then coats the results with acrylic:
For me, the human head was a natural choice of subject matter because of its inherent expressiveness. I carve the faces out of phone books because I like the three-dimensional quality that results and because of the unexpected results that occur working in this medium. The three-dimensional quality enhances the feeling of the pieces as an object as opposed to a picture.
In carving and painting a head from a phone directory, I’m celebrating the individual lost in the anonymous list of thousands of names that describe the size of the community. In addition, I like the idea of creating something that is normally discarded every year into an object of longevity.
Gallery at the link.
http://www.projectsgallery.com/Queral.htm via The Presurfer | Photo: Projects Gallery
I recently saw this work at the miami beach convention center. The picture does ,the texture of the work, no justice. The artist had portraits of george carlin and john goodman and an indian man who i wasnt sure of. very cool work definitely made me think differently about phone books.
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I really dig this. I'll probably even drive a few hours to Philly to see it. Thanks for posting.
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