Cheeming Boey's styrofoam cup illustrations

Cheeming Boey uses styrofoam cups as his canvas for Sharpie illustrations. He sells his work on Etsy. From an interview with Boey at Don't Panic:

You draw on styrofoam cups. But we throw those away! That's crazy! Why do something so crazy?
I didn’t think it was crazy. People draw on napkins, receipts, wood. I was outside a coffee shop and had the urge to sketch while people watched. I found a foam cup on top of a trash can, and it was all I had, so that was what I worked with. It turned out nice, and I kept it. Then I made it a point to collect more, so I drew on more cups. One day a co worker asked what I was going to do with all the cups I had around my workspace, and I said,” they’re nice, maybe I can sell them one day.” To which he said, “no one is going to buy that crap.” And here I am...
When did you decide to start selling the cups in display cases, and do you think the cases change how people see your work?
I think the cases made them feel more important, and complete. I am fine with the cups sitting out on their own on my shelf, but not everyone can look past the fact that they’re ‘disposable’. The cases for some reason helps with that. Now its more of an ‘art’ piece. It’s all psychological. To me, just because something is labelled disposable, doesn’t mean it has to be. It is what you make of it.

"Permanently Disposable"

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

Is that a picture of Fedor? Seems like an odd portrait to choose.
Anonymous

Seeing as expanded polystyrene foam is often just thrown away, without concern for the fact that it doesn’t break down like forever, like most other plastic crap ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polystyrene#Disposal_and_environmental_issues ), I think this to be a much better use of these than as throwaway cups; permanent, scarce, unrecyclable materials are best used for permanent, scarce, unrecycled objects; throwaways should be of organic material, as all that is organic is thrown away and recycled, at some point (including you, the reader).
Anonymous

I actually do something very much the same with paper coffee cups they have in most offices. I’m glad there are other people who do the same!