Cheeming Boey draws on styrofoam coffee cups with a sharpie pen.
Those of us who have a tendency to doodle on whatever surface is handy may not think that surprising, but the degree of skill and work that he puts into his unusual medium is outstanding.
His subjects range from cartoons to detailed stippled portraits to elaborate decorative drawings inspired by the style of Japanese prints.
The drawings use the entire circumference of the cop, connecting with themselves in a continuous band. The flicker set of his cup drawings features them set against a mirror and also often includes multiple views of the same cup.
There is a photo sequence of his process and a video as well.
Boey’s cups sell in galleries for $120 to $220 and are sometimes placed in plastic cases. There is an article on him on the OC Register.
You’ll often hear disparaging remarks about unorthodox art materials, particularly when they’re not “archival”. I dont’ know about the Sharpie ink, but Boey’s styrofoam “canvas”, as any eco-warrior will tell you, will last for a long long time.
Addendum: The Sharpie blog has an interview with Boey
[Via digg]
Ha! The first think I thought when I saw the pics (beyond, ‘wow! gorgeous’) was that the medium was more archival than most of what we work on today…
no need to put these in glass cases – they’re indestructable as it is!
seriously though, these are lovely. must be a pain in the junk to store, though. they don’t exactly fold flat.
check out http://www.sharpieuncapped.com for an interview with Cheeming about how he designs his coffee cups. Fabulosity!
Thanks, Susan. I’ve added a link to the main post.
I wish he will work with the instant noodle giants of Japan and we can all enjoy our instant noodles with his design on it’s bowls! Or on Coke or Pepsi limited collection can… that will be cool for a summer collection!
I’m not trying to be irreverent (because I do like his drawings) but does Cheeming Boey’s work remind anyone else of the Teeny Little Superguy from Sesame Street? That was an animated character drawn exclusively on plastic cups. I always thought that the artists created quite a challenge for themselves, drawing on a curved surface.
Thanks, David.
I think I missed that; but his linework does remind me of someone, though I can’t bring it to mind.
Love these! I agree about the cup a noodle places–it’s wonderful design and they would be fantastic–maybe they could even make limited edition designs.:-)
Very refreshing…
Sharpie ink is generally not archival, although their line of water-based paint markers is advertised as such. Most sharpies are dye based and acidic. Without knowing exactly what he is using, it is hard to say for sure. (and even then, it is increasingly popular for pen manufacturers to claim their ink is archival. But there remains to be hundreds of years of tradition behind such claims, so we all have to take their word for it.)
That being said, if you can turn a styrofoam cup into a 200 dollar museum piece, more power to you.
I agree. Except for those processes that have lasted for hundreds of years, the term “archival” is nebulous at best.