Jason Mercier has a way with celebrity junk

Celebrity collage artist, Jason Mercier, has a new show, "Celebrity Junk Drawer," at 5 Claude Lane in San Francisco. After asking for and receiving two boxes of junk from Phyllis Diller (she's the coolest), he sent letters to several other celebrities, asking for their crapola. He then worked his tacky-glue magic and the result is more than ten portraits for your viewing pleasure.
Jason used to be in the pop-culture junk band, Enrique, and they went all out, making elaborate 70s-era-like costumes, wearing scratchy, acrylic wigs, and playing in small clubs around San Francisco ALL THE TIME. So it's nice to see him become such a established fixture on the outsider art scene. He used to work strictly with macaroni and beans--branching out!



There's still some question as to whether this is art or not. Oh, get over it, naysayers. Let's see you make an accurate portrait of Kathy Najimi using brown-and-serve sausages.


Early work made from food.


One view off Jaina A. Davis' Victorian stairwell, covered entirely with tens of thousands of pencils, erasers, various office supplies and one lone pen. She commissioned Jason to make it and it took five years to complete. They were both in Enrique together. That band spawned a lot of weird art. Any questions? There's a FAQ.

Clean out your house and help Jason by sending him your unneeded junk-drawer items. He explains how. I would love to see his workshop.