Artist James Charles converts banknotes inspired by pop culture into portraits and the result is amazing!
The “mutant” notes come with a range of portraits of famous painters, character strips and singers: The faces of the presidents are converted into images of pop culture such as Justin Bieber, Yoda, Willy Wonka, Princess Leia, and even Ronald McDonald, the famous mascot. Others depict, Einstein, the Frida Kahlo, the Vincent Van Gogh, the Iggy Pop, the Jimmy Hendrix and many others. His figures are certainly widely recognizable, but everyone has a little script below it.
Charles uses ink and color only to rewrite the notes putting aside the value of money using not only dollars of 5 and 10, but 50 and 100. The changes are so subtle and careful and painstaking work with ink looks like it was decorated to look like money – but if you take a closer look, you will find that these tiny canvases are genuine banknotes.
