I’ve seen people take various discards and use it for “art,” but seldom do we come across an artist that sticks to one type of junk to produce such enthralling pieces. For Pittsburgh-based tattoo artist Cliff Maynard, that medium is used joint butts, scrounged up from wherever people get rid of their roach ends (it’s not like the city keeps a repository for them).
The resulting creations, however, are even more impressive than his material. How the heck do you use throwaway parts of used roach paper to produce that?!?
According to Maynard, he came up with the idea while studying mosaics in school: “I just remember sort of making this connection in my head between the tiles and roach papers.” Whether he was stoned while uncovering that relationship is uncertain. Regardless, the results he produced ended up downright outstanding.
He calls the new medium “Chronic Art,” which entails a painstaking amount of sifting through piles of used roach paper, cutting them into delicate shapes (using an Xacto knife) and arranging them on a canvas to turn up gorgeously-detailed pieces. Because of the laborious process, each one takes between 70 to over 200 hours to create, not counting the time he takes to collect all that used butt.
Tommy Chong said it best – “Creative way to dispose of roaches, man!” I’ll say. The artist is currently selling cannabis-sourced portraits of various well-known potheads, including Snoop Dogg, Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley, available as 16 x 20 inch Giclee prints, each with a limited print run of (what else) 420 pieces. He also does custom portraits, with price (usually between $1,000 to $10,000) depending on both size and difficulty.
[Thanks Chronic Art]