Brooklyn based artist, Dustin Yellin has left me in awe with his photo mosaic sculptures! His combination of collage, photo mosaic, painting, and sculpture work are all rolled into one mind-bending art form.

His tedious and meticulously planned process is captivating to watch in itself, but the finished products are what I love about art and photography. Something that makes you do a double take, pulls you in, makes you scratch your head.

Not unlike photo mosaics, at a distance, you see one form and as you get closer the details and intricacies come alive and hold your attention as you scan every inch.  

You can learn more about Yellin’s inspiration and approach to art by watching his Ted Talk.  Yellin describes how he began creating these large resin collage boxes. It all started with a wooden box that he put a few items in and buried in the ground as an 8-year-old boy.  He then started finding objects and adding them into his colleges filled with resin, and before long he found himself having art shows and earning a living.

“So what did I do? I built more boxes. This time, I started putting electronics, frogs, strange bottles I’d find in the street — anything I could find –because I was always finding things my whole life and trying to make relationships and tell stories between these objects. So I started drawing around the objects, and I realized: Holy moly, I can draw in space! I can make free-floating lines, like the way you would draw around a dead body at a crime scene. So I took the objects out, and I created my own taxonomy of invented specimens. First, botanical — which you can kind of get a sense of. Then I made some weird insects and creatures. It was really fun; I was just drawing on the layers of resin.“

On his site, Yellin teases that while paper can cease to exist, these sculptures have the potential to become artifacts similar to a fly trapped in amber glass from another era. These masterpieces will certainly be cherished by art lovers for many years to come!