Your Daily July, 20th

No Dumping

Jason Mecier makes art from celebrities' junk. Is it a comment on disposable celebrity or a celebration of disposables?

By Peter Gilstrap
Published: Dec 01, 2007

Jason Mecier is an artist with a singular credo: One woman’s box of crap is another man’s portrait of Phyllis Diller.

In this case, it’s quite literally Phyllis Diller’s box of crap. That’s what Mecier used to form his stunning mosaic of the bewigged comedienne.

Where Julian Schnabel confined himself to using big piles of broken dishes to make big canvases of broken dishes, the San Francisco-based Mecier utilizes junked jewelry, scuffed shoes, used makeup, forgotten sunglasses, battered kitchen utensils, caved-in baby toys, and aged office supplies – all supplied by the subjects themselves – to forge astonishingly detailed collages of the show biz stars over whom he obsesses.

And those “stars” are a mixed bag of iconic names that range from legit hipsters to tabloid legends to those whose faded glitter is laced with a fine coating of kitsch cheese: Joan Van Ark, Ryan Adams, Margaret Cho, Heidi Fleiss, Barbi Benton, Morgan Fairchild and Susan Tyrell, to name but a few of his thirty-some works (so far) that sell in the $10,000 range.

Yet his current, ongoing, series’ theme, Celebrity Junk Drawer, is not Mecier’s virgin foray into celeb portraiture.

“I first started with beans and noodles, and I did Paula Abdul,” he says of his early vision. “With the art I was doing, I was already making junk portraits of people and pretending that it was their stuff, making scenarios, so it was already in my head, trying to find objects that would fit with the person, and then it just seemed like getting their actual stuff was the next step.”

Diller was the first to respond to Mecier’s query letters.

“I saw online that she was a painter, so I contacted her and said I was an artist and I’d like to do her portrait,” he recalls. “Within two weeks she sent me a box of jewelry and old watches and her headshots.” Compliant Diller also included a personalized pair of pantyhose that had “like dried blood on the knee, or something. I was just amazed that she even responded at all. Then I started asking everybody.”

Followers of stars’ passions know that many are multi-talents. Think of Sinatra’s strident clown paintings, Tony Bennett’s evocative water colors, or perhaps Jamie Farr’s work in sculpting. In addition to his desire to honor his heroes, Mecier was driven by the notion of collecting art works by his favored subjects.

And the subjects have responded; he’s been gifted with numerous pieces, including a bong hand crafted by Parker Posey.

“She made it in her pottery class,” he reveals. Mecier created his own stunning vision of the indie star with the refuse she sent him. Struck by his work, she “commissioned a portrait of Ryan Adams when they were together. She scavenged his old cigarette butts and things. And I have a Diller painting, and a Susan Tyrell painting.”

Aficionados may recall the character actress’s turns in Big Top Pee Wee and Crybaby.

“She’s amazing,” states Mecier. “Her legs were amputated; she had a rare blood disease. She has these fake legs and she’s painted them with tattoos. I was really honored when she gave me a painting because she never gives them away.”

And talk about a keepsake. “It’s a woman being raped by a huge swan, and he has a huge wiener and he’s clawing her and she’s all bloody, and her face is a tragedy mask. It’s called Her Marriage. It’s a great painting, but it’s disturbing.”