Unusual Art

A portrait of Amy Winehouse made of pills. Using 5,000 multicoloured tablets, artist Jason Mecier created the 17 x 21 inch picture to honour the singer's short life. He creates his portraits of celebrities using junk, pills and sweets. Jason sometimes uses items donated by the stars themselves to complete his pieces. Jason explains: "Celebrities really do send me items. Most people send me anywhere from a shoebox to a trash bag full of things to incorporate into their portraits. I have a bag of Pam Anderson's laundry, and a letter Paris Hilton wrote me from prison." Jason says his Lady Gaga portrait "has some Hello Kitty merchandise that was used in her famous photo shoot." He says his portraits take at least 50 hours, but many take much, much longer - Lady Gaga took him almost two months and hundreds of hours. The San Francisco artist builds collages from unusual materials that he feels suit the personality or life of the subject. His portrait of Michael Jackson is made from thousands of pills A portrait of Taylor Swift made of pink and white sweets A Barack Obama portrait made of red, white and blue junk The stars are sometimes so flattered by the trash treatment that they buy their own portraits - which start at $1,500. Rosie O'Donnell bought this picture of her made out of food Pink was so impressed with her portrait that she bought it and used it in her music video for Please Don't Leave Me Scissor Sisters bought their portrait, which features hundreds of pairs of scissors Nicolas Cage junk portrait A Courtney Love portrait made of pills A portrait of Frida Kahlo made of junk, including the skulls used on the Mexican Day of the Dead Anna Nicole Smith junk portrait Donald Trump's portrait is made of mobile phone, money and hairspray cans Heath Ledger pill portrait See more of Jason's junk portraits at www.jasonmecier.com