Artist carves phone books into portraits to honor the faceless

ORIGINAL: Mother Nature Network
Thu, Nov 21, 2013

Photos: Alex Queral/Projects Gallery

Nobody uses phone books anymore, right?
Wrong. Using the very same bulky, cumbersome books that most of us toss into the recycling bin without a second thought, artist Alex Queral carves amazing 3-D sculpture portraits featuring subjects like celebrities, world leaders, and even abstract creations.

"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," Queral says in his artist's statement. "In addition, I like the idea of creating something that is normally discarded every year into an object of longevity."

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"Alex Queral carves a face into this object of so many faceless names," the Projects Gallery description of his artwork reads. "With the book, a very sharp X-Acto knife, a little pot of acrylic medium to set detail areas and a great deal of talent, Queral literally peels away the pages like the skin of an onion to reveal the portrait within."

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Albert Einstein

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Clint Eastwood

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Alfred Hitchcock

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President Barack Obama

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David Bowie

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Louise Fletcher as Nurse Mildred Ratched, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"

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Dalai Lama

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Young Bob Dylan

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"Alter Ego"