Flavorwire

Laughing Squid tipped us off to the work of artist Scott Blake, in a post about his 2002 self-portrait in ecstasy pills, created in Photoshop with images he downloaded from the pill-testing clearinghouse DanceSafe. Our curiosity about the artist’s other work led us to his website, where we found a motherlode of other witty and thought-provoking pictures of pop-culture icons. Blake uses CD and book covers, text, and barcodes to make portraits of famous people rendered in the products they sell us, directly or indirectly. His work — which also includes clocks, net art, collages, and paintings — is a reminder of the relationship between the commercial world and the people we both admire and revile. Ten of our favorite Blake portraits are after the jump.

Scott Blake, Ecstasy Self-Portrait, 2002