“It’s… so… artistic!”

“Pete Mason is one artist who’ll surely gain your stamp of approval with his portraits made out of recycled postage stamps. Peter Mason, or the ‘Post Pop Art Man,’ as he calls himself, creates portraits of famous people by recycling postage stamps into pixellated images, using the stamps’ colors and designs to contribute to richly evocative portraits. Each artwork is made of thousands of used postage stamps, from 3,500 for a typical 4’ x 3’ canvas to 22,000 for the larger pieces. As one can imagine, the preparations for each stamp portrait are extensive. First, Mason draws the portrait onto a canvas or a huge piece of paper; then, he divides the image into stamp-sized squares — his pixels.” w/ photos

“A bright spark artist has come up with incredible sculptures made from spent matches – and he doesn’t even smoke. IT specialist Stanislav Aristov began making the beautiful artwork to satisfy a burning desire to create something beautiful. Since then the 28-year-old has gone on to fashion some amazing sculptures from a smokey butterfly to a burning heart. The part-time artist – who despite his talent is so far yet to exhibit – discovered the idea after he entered a photo competition in Russia. Unable to come up with an idea Stanislav struck a match before noticing the incredible patterns formed in the carbon of the used wood – and so match art was born. Russian Stanislav, from Yekaterinburg, central Russia, has now become a sensation in his mother country and wants to come to the UK soon. He said: ‘I guess the funny thing is, I don’t even smoke.” w/ photos

“Looking at the masterpieces Jason Mecier creates, you’d find it hard to believe he has no formal art training, but he is indeed a self-taught artist with incredible talent. His greatest inspiration is his grandmother who nurtured his artistic inclination ever since he was just a child. The artworks she created mesmerized him as a boy, and Jason remembers she was the one who encouraged him to create art using materials readily available to him. You can say he followed her advice to the letter, as he is now known as one of the world’s most gifted junk artists.” w/ photos

“Absolutely breathtaking… I love Mark Ryden’s work. However, from 3:00-3:30ish, it looks like that piece of meat on the right is talking… And it’s seriously creeping me out.” — nb

“Artist John Kenn Mortensen ditched the idea of using chapel ceilings or a simple piece of stretched canvas and instead let his imagination run riot on the humble sticky stationery note. While most of us would use them to jot down a reminder, John Kenn Mortensen turns the tiny slips of paper into intricate pen drawings of spooks and spectres. To date, he has 250 different illustrations in his collection, some of which sell for up to $97. Mr Mortensen, who writes and directs television shows, said: ‘I am a professionally trained character animator and drawing is something I have been doing all my life. ‘I have to draw and I have to tell stories, and by using the sticky notes I can get it all down on paper quickly. It means I don’t bore myself to death.” w/ photos

“They are renowned for closely guarding the secret inner-workings of their multi-million pound vehicles. But one Formula 1 boss has defied his competitors by allowing an artist to display his team’s $41million pride and joy – suspended piece-by-piece from a gallery ceiling. Nick Fry, chief executive of the Mercedes GP Petronas Formula 1 Team, had no qualms about last season’s MGP W01 car – driven by seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher – being deconstructed. Dutch artist Paul Veroude disassembled 3,200 components and then suspended them on wire. The effect is akin to the car having just exploded a fraction of a second earlier, before being frozen in time. It took Mr Veroude a long time to complete his task, but not as long as it took the Mercedes team to build their car. Engineers at the German manufacturer spent 90,000 hours of design time and 200,000 hours to manufacture the vehicle.” w/ photos

“An inspiring Iranian artist has conquered her disability by using her paint to create art.”

“Matthew Cusick is a graduated artist from Cooper Union. Inspired by topography, he creates incredible works of art with map cutout. Cusick reconfigures entire networks of roads, rivers and municipal transit systems to create intricate artworks that look like paintings and drawings, if looked at from afar.” w/ photos

“Coming to Nokia Plaza L.A. Live in Los Angeles on March 25, 2011 is a new, one-of-a-kind sculpture that pays homage to one of the greatest boxers of all-time, Muhammad Ali. Made up of 1,300 boxing speed bags, the piece stands 22 feet high and is held up by 5 miles of stainless steel cable and 2 miles of aluminum tubing. (Did we tell you it took three years to complete?) Internationally acclaimed artist and sculptor Michael Kalish is the man behind reALIze, the new conceptual and thought-provoking monument. Kalish came up with the project and then worked with architectural firm Oyler Wu to design it. The idea for reALIze came about when Lonnie Ali, and her husband Muhammad, saw a tv segment about Kalish’s pop-art license plates. Intrigued by his work, Mrs. Ali reached out to Kalish, which led to the artist creating a piece for the Ali family. That first sculpture led to a lasting relationship between Kalish and the Alis and ultimately inspired reALIze, an installation created to be as mythical as the boxer himself.” w/ photos