i recently found joe ryckebosch on etsy and quickly bought a piece from him i liked his work so much. joe uses 95% recycled materials found at thrift stores, yard sales and scrap yards in his work. his combination of colored tape, old magazine images and photographs are brilliantly placed. as a child who was born into the 70s i'm a sucker for national geographic-esque images. joe says this about his work:
"i want the viewer to see these familiar and not so familiar images in a different manner. i try to leave the focal point of the image intact, while adding colors and patterns that could have always been there, but just never seen until now.
the joy in making these pieces reveals itself in the "hunt" for the objects. i never know what i'm going to find when entering a thrift store, or stumbling upon a particularly interesting yard sale.
there's nothing better than stumbling upon something while cleaning or organizing and thinking, "wow, how come i never realized what could be done with this?" i suppose there was a reason why i acquired it in the first place. Blow off the dust, lay out the piece, turn on the lights, and let the OCD run wild."
"let the OCD run wild", i just love that. joe has a few shows happening now and upcoming. check out his news page to find out more.