Some artists use oil paint, watercolor, pastels or chalk to create their masterpieces. Some use prescription medication.
Mosaic artist Jason Mercier was first commissioned by the UK version of Glamour magazine to create portraits of celebrities out of pills for an article about substance abuse in Hollywood. He depicted Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger, Courtney Love and Kelly Osbourne with thousands of tiny pills in different shapes and colors.
“Since then I have found it to be the perfect medium to memorialize other tragic deaths like Amy Winehouse and Whitney Houston,” Mercier said in an email to The Daily Caller.
The portrait of the late singer took Mercier 20 hours to create with more than 1,500 pills.
He said he is a huge Houston fan, and his artwork isn’t meant to offend anyone, but that it is meant to be “sad, ironic and evocative. As an artist you want to raise these emotions. I find these pieces more honest than disrespectful,” he said.
The irony, of course, is that Mercier used what reportedly killed the singer to commemorate her.
Houston was found dead in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton on Feb. 11. There were reportedly prescription pills in the room with her at the time.
If you would like to have the pill portrait hanging in your living room, it can be yours for $2,500.