Artist Janice Wu says that she believes inanimate objects "can become playful and even precious" with a little simple re-imagining.
Her intricate drawings of receipts, soy sauce packets and other everyday items are familiar and nearly photo-realistic and yet somehow foreign, in the way a friend or relative may appear in a photograph that catches them at a different angle or in a different light. They've been a hit online, as Wu has been featured on a number of art websites, from Juxtapoz to Junkculture.
Wu is currently completing her BFA in visual arts at Vancouver's Emily Carr Art University. The images in the series depicted below are primarily done in pencil and gouache, and judging by her website, drawing appears to be her primary mode of creation.
In an email to The Huffington Post, Wu said she aims to explore "aspects of material culture, such as value, worth, and meaning."
"I hope that in some small curious way, my drawings shift our perception of the everyday that surrounds us," the artist writes. "Perhaps through contemplating the overlooked and familiar, something interesting, charming or even thought-provoking can be revealed."
As for the original inspiration for these pieces? Last year, Wu was working on a series titled "Lost and Found" in which she paired each image with a "short ambiguous personal narrative." When she finished the series, she decided to continue exploring the notion of the beauty in the commonplace.
Let us know what you think of Wu's art in the comments section below, and check out the slideshow here: