Ray Charles in Post-It Notes

David Alvarez, 19, of Leavenworth, Washington used more than 2,000 Post-it Notes to create a 10-foot image of Ray Charles. Alvarez, and art student at Washington's Wenatchee Valley College, says the idea came to him while playing with a mosaic effect in Photoshop. The finished piece took three months. From CNN:

"It's something so simple. You can still see the flaps sticking out on some of them," he said. "Naturally the Post-it Note just sort of flaps out..."

Originally, the Post-it Notes stayed in this unique format only by virtue of their manufactured stickiness, which does not hold up as well as glue, Alvarez found. When he displayed his work at (an area art) show, he monitored the project for 14 hours, continuously replacing notes that were falling off.

The aspiring art teacher now uses glue to hold the notes in place.

Link (via Neatorama)

Previously on BB:
• Jaguar covered in stickie notes Link

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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Anonymous

I think you’re missing the point. This isn’t about Post-it Notes.

This is about RAAAAAAAAAY CHAAAAAAARRLES.
jccalhoun

The whole something made out of something else thing is just lost on me. The first time I saw it, it might have been neat but now it is just boring.
Anonymous

nothing new at all. don’t know what that took him so long.
Anonymous

A good how-to for anyone that needs a step-by-step:

http://mentalhygiene.com/index.php/2005/06/04/post-it-mosaic-howto/

Maybe you saw this, David?
Anonymous

Nothing new:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ih8gates/sets/444219/
Anonymous

so he got the idea from photoshop, not the tons of other people who’ve done the exact samething with postit notes already?
Anonymous

While I admire the young artist, this is not new. See, for example, http://blog.epromos.com/archives/post-art.jpg
Anonymous

post-it note 8 bit is old hat.
Telecommuting Millionaire

We really have too much time on our hands.
Sarah

Excellent! I love art that makes witty use of pre-existing materials!

Does the fluttering of the notes give it any sense of animation? I’d love to see a video of this.
Anonymous

Some of my students did this a few years ago with – of all people – me! You can see what they did here. I think theirs is a little bit bigger.
Anonymous

Actually, it would be interesting to see a time-lapse photography video of the artwork slowly destroying itself when the adhesive power of each individual note fails…
Kathryn

The colorlovers blog also recently posted examples of post-it art:

http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2007/08/31/post-it-art-productivity-in-many-wonderful-colors/
Anonymous

Here’s one from MIT.

http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_year/2003/vidwall_postits/

and UCSC

http://www.yikes.com/~pengo/8bit/
(BoingBoing covered that last one here: http://www.boingboing.net/2005/02/23/fourstorey-mario-mur.html)
oscar

Very cool, but I find it hard to believe the idea didn’t come from the Elvis post-it mural.
Stacyj

I really like how random this idea seems – why Ray Charles? Why sticky notes? The apparent utter lack of connection appeals to me for some reason.

Next up, Rick Moranis’ head shaved into the fur of a poodle! Neil Armstrong as a silly putty sculpture! A new bouillabaisse flavor that captures the true essence of Steve Jobs!
Marcos

How about Donkey Kong made of post-its?

http://www.thecoolhunter.net/ads/Nintendo-Wii-Wiill-not-forget/
Anonymous

3 MONTHS?! Did he put up like 3 post-its a day?
phasor3000

Wanking while Rome burns, part 427…
Anonymous

Is this really art?

And 3 *MONTHS*?

Image of Ray Charles. Reduce it to 6 colors (or however many), and reduce the resolution to 52×40. Print the image out enlarged, number the rows, and not only would you get it done in a weekend, you’d be able to use contact cement from the beginning instead of spending 14 hours replacing Post-It notes. (Who’d imagine that an adhesive designed to not be permanent.. would not be permanent?)

… but I guess that’s an engineer’s approach. If this IS art, does the fact that it took him so long through trial and error (i imagine) staring at a photo of Ray Charles make it more “art” than my method?
origilla

BOOOO! I’m pissed that boingboing even posted this considering it’s been done a million times before in much cooler iterations. David, you little shit, having this posted may be the worst thing that could have happened to you because now everyone will see you for the liar that you are.
Anonymous

David Alvarez is clearly no artist. An artist would recognise the limitations of the medium and accept them. Glueing Post-It Notes on with contact glue is pointless. Allowing the Post-It Notes to fall like leaves, as Nature and 3M intended, is art.

I pity his students. They will only learn decorating, not art.