Phone Book Art by Alex Queral

Cuban American artist Alex Queral carves phone-books to create these amazing portraits.



"I was out looking for wood to make a sculpture one day and I noticed a huge pile of phone books on the pavement. I suddenly thought they would probably make a pretty good material for carving, so I gave it a go"



"My fascination with heads began as an art student."



"For me, the human head was a natural choice of subject matter because of its inherent expressiveness."



"I carve the faces out of phone books because I like the three-dimensional quality that results and because of the unexpected results that occur working in this medium"



"The three-dimensional quality enhances the feeling of the pieces as an object as opposed to a picture."



"In carving and painting a head from a phone-book directory, I’m celebrating the individual lost in the anonymous list of thousands of names that describe the size of the community."



"In addition, I like the idea of creating something that is normally discarded every year into an object of longevity."



Queral carves up to two phone-book sculptures a month.



He begins each project by deciding on the face and doing a series of sketches to prepare. With a very sharp X-ACTO® knife, he then peels away the pages like the skin of an onion to reveal the portrait within.



Once the carving is complete, he will often apply a black wash to enhance the features and then seal the entire book with transparent acrylic paint, to make them durable and give them a glossy finish.



"Nearing the end of the carving and then suddenly having it ruined by a careless cut can be pretty crushing. You have to start all over again"


Source: nydailynews