Portraits of People Created By Repeating Words In Very Small Type

Genius, 2011
20″ x 24″

This is my favorite piece that I’ve done so far. I really wanted to do something different with lots of color and a Van Gogh painter was perfect. I had to create 42 brushes and it took me close to 40 hours to complete because of the details. It was at The National Gallery in Ottawa where I saw Van Gogh’s iris series that I really appreciated his work and realized that he is truly a GENIUS.

36-24-37, 2011
24″ x 24″

This classic image of Marilyn Monroe took me about 65 hours to complete. The difficulty was trying to create a continues soft tone and the hair details took forever. My fashion-stylist friend Marie-Eve says MM’s dimensions has always been debatable but 36-24-37 is one of them.

Not My Father, 2011
24″ x 20″

Darth Vader may be Luke Skywalker’s father, but he certainly is “Not My Father” :)

Photographer and artist Huy Lam painstakingly creates his detailed portraits with recurring select words or phrases in tiny 4 point type. His portrait of artist Vincent Van Gogh, for example, is completely made up of the word “GENIUS” repeated over and over in various colors to create the likeness of the famous painter.

I hope by creating images through words it will provoke thought, discussion and even laughter.

images via Huy Lam

Rusty Blazenhoff
Rusty Blazenhoff