In Dorothy’s effort to bring you the GLBTQ communities’ most talented artists, musicians and performers, we present to you, Jason Mecier. Jason has a very unique form of art. He creates outrageous three dimensional mosaic portraits of his favorite pop culture icons.

Jason’s been honing his craft for over 10 years. What’s really unique about Jason’s art is that each portrait is created from the celebrities own discarded objects and junk such as broken sunglasses, make-up, gum wrappers, jewelry, deodorant, shoes, and whatever else  they can conjure up. Jason’s also used simple household items such as beans, noodles, yarn and pencils.

Born in Los Angeles, Mecier now calls San Francisco home. Although Jason has not had any formal art training, his grandmother, Anita Tollefson was his mentor. He can remember, “Being mesmerized by her paintings, weavings, mosaics, sculptures, collages, and stained glass work that filled my grandparents’ house and yard. If Anita was working on an art project, she would set me up at a nearby table with a project of my own to work on. One of my earliest pieces is a mosaic made from beans, noodles, rocks, and cut bamboo sticks glued on a piece of wood. My grandmother encouraged me to create masterpieces using materials readily available to me. She would rather paint on the back of her cigarette cartons than buy a canvas. I learned from her that I can make art out of anything I want to, and that there are no rules.”

Jason got hooked on celebrity early in life, he remembers as a kid he was obsessively clipping and scrap-booking pictures from the TV Guide of his favorite shows. In high school he did pencil drawings of his favorite record covers like The Rolling Stones, Olivia Newton-John and Pat Benatar. Later he did a series of psychedelic collages using Charlie’s Angels trading cards and picture of Florence Henderson from the Wesson Oil coupons and ads. Soon he was arranging beans and noodles into larger portraits of these icons. It just exploded from there!

Here's a photo of Jason with the beautiful Elvira, Mistress of the dark! In case you didn't know, Jason's the  handsome gentleman on the right!!

Mecier meticulously creates his mosaic master pieces; each piece takes well over 50 hours to create. The portraits he did of Farrah Fawcett and Lady Gaga each took almost 2 months and hundreds of hours.

It is hard to believe that celebrities really do send Jason their trash, but they do! Phyllis Diller sends him a small box every few months filled with odd things like pine cones, dried up paints, jewelry, eyeglasses and anti-itch ointments. He also has a bag of Pam Anderson's laundry, and a letter Paris Hilton wrote him from prison!

Jason’s art is featured in the new Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Book; Prepare to be Shocked! and Taschen’s Illustration Now! Some of his many clients include Wrigley's, Ford, Quaker, The Food Network,  Aveeno, Corona, MTV,  Rolling Stone, Showtime, Entertainment Weekly, People, Soap Opera Weekly, The Advocate, The Village Voice and The New York Times.

Some of the portraits he has done include celebrity icons such as Florence Henderson, Mary-Louise Parker, Ricki Lake, RuPaul, Margaret Cho, George Lopez, Scissor Sisters, the Go-Go’s, the B52's, Ryan Adams, Morgan Fairchild, Pink, Bjork, Melissa Etheridge and Gloria Steinem.

RuPaul made out of her own junk!

San Francisco's own Turleen made out of her junk!

Heath Ledger made out of pills!

Kathy Griffin!

Taylor Lautner made out of Red Vines licorice!

Jackie Beat made out of her junk!

Elisabeth Berkley as Nomi Malone made out of Red Vines licorice!

Rosie O'Donnell made out of junk food!

Jason is "about to start on Amy Sedaris' portrait. She sent me a bunch of leftovers from her new craft book ( Pom-poms, fabric from her outfits,, felt and some 70's  yarn covered hangers!) so I'm really excited about that. Also waiting to hear back from Liza and Suzanne Somers and Jennifer Tilly about sending me their junk, so that keeps me awake at night!" Jason’s commissioned pieces start at $1,500 and up.

He is currently looking for a publisher for his coffee table book, Celebrity Junk Drawer . It consists of approximately 100 portraits with details, photos, and stories from celebrities regarding art, fame, and storage units. So if anyone reading this has some publishing contacts, please contact Jason!

To see more of Jason’s art you can go to his website jasonmecier.com or contact him This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Dorothy's Closet is always striving to introduce you to some of the most amazing talent in the GLBTQ community. We are so pleased to bring you the work of this great photographer residing in San Francisco. Dorothy was blown away by his talent as she is sure you will be, too. Jose has a natural eye for beauty. Every one of his pictures are amazing. Jose is a storyteller with a camera. When he asked Dorothy to pick out some photos to showcase for this article, she had a tough time narrowing the choice down to just a few.

Here's a photo of Jose with two of his muses, Sutan and Venus D. Lite from Season 3 of Rupaul's Drag Race. We know, you're thinking Jose has an in with the infamous Madonna!

We'll let Jose tell his story

I remember the first time I picked up a camera at about 16 years old and how excited I was to capture images of natural and strange objects floating up onto the shores of Cape May, NJ. I have to say, it is one of my fondest memories.

After a few years of traveling and allowing life to happen, I forgot all about my love for the camera. It was not until many years later that I partnered with fantastic photographer Marianne Larochelle. I served as Art Director & Stylist on our Glam Gender coffee table book and began to see I was falling back in love with taking photos. I guess you can say it was a major leap of faith along with a new found teacher and master of photography that got me back on track.

I have tremendous love for my community here in San Francisco, and with that love, I have had many doors open for me. My subjects include famous Drag Personas and sexy men and women from all walks of life. My wish is to inspire the subject, viewer and, of course, myself.

Black Madonna - featuring the talented actor Raya Light. I painted Raya Light in all-black make-up, then showered her in a storm of white decadence. No matter how dark a person can get, there is always a light of love and inspiration.

Suppositori Spelling - Suppositori Spelling is slick and always stunning. This creature has no mercy when it comes to fiercing my lens. Catch Suppositori around town doing her Mary-Go-Round and Cocktailgate shows.

Malik- Malik is strong, black and breathtaking. This man never fails to amaze me when working together. His softness, yet the strong  connection I have with this subject, shows throughout every image.

Heklina- Heklina has been one of my favorite muses to photograph. She is a powerful light and inspiration to me and many other artists, especially working with her long-running and revolutionary Trannyshack show in San Francisco and around the world.

Peaches Christ - Peaches Christ has inspired me to create beautiful images that leave the viewer wanting more. Peaches Christ has been a guiding force in my work through my longstanding relationship with her ground breaking Midnight Mass movie series and her critically-acclaimed first feature-length film, All About Evil.

Pollo Del Mar - Gal around town, Pollo Del Mar has had such a strong effect on my career from all the PR work she does for me to allowing me to capture soft and sultry images of her. Catch her Sundays night at The Cafe doing her show The GlamaZONE.

Greg - With his piercing blue eyes, there will always be a place in front of my lens for Greg. This man exudes sexiness with his natural good looks.

Karis Wilde – I have been trying to photograph this beautiful specimen for years, and when we finally got to work together, I was in awe of Karis' gorgeous spirit. Karis is a model, muse and a great love to us all.

Dorothy's Closet is committed in bringing the works of GLBT artists,  musicians and writers to the queer community and down the yellow brick road. We are pleased to bring you the works of San Francisco artist, Donald Rizzo.  Donald's work came to our attention by a "friend of Dorothy". We welcome all of your suggestions for GLBT artists to showcase on Dorothy's Closet.

Over Exposed  (32 X 48)  a self portrait

Donald Rizzo's art is magnificent. It takes you in, on a journey of deep introspection. Each of his pieces tell a story. His paintings are acrylic on canvas. 

He calls his style "Fragments of Color".  Don explains that each painting is made up of tiny fragments, and each painting has a fragment of himself  in them.  "With each painting I process and heal and so all my paintings are me and is truly my self portrait."

Donald finds the creation process to be a form of meditation and expression. "It has been a way for me to confront and process many personal demons that until art came into my life, were never dealt with.  Each completed work brings a little bit of healing to my life and my mind."

The following is the artist's statement.

At first glance, few things are ever as they appear. In life, as with my art, perspective is everything.

 When we first meet someone, we often think we know much about that person from what we can see. However, as we draw closer to people, our perspective changes. We begin to see things differently. Physical and even character flaws become more obvious. Soon the person we saw in the distance is not the person who stands before us. The individual we thought we saw so clearly, seems transformed or is it the viewer who has been transformed?

 So, too, it is with my abstract realism acrylic on canvas paintings. When seen from a distance, the visual information in my paintings evoke a strong and convincing realistic likeness. However, as one gets closer to the work, a new perspective arrives. In approaching the once three-dimensional painting, the image goes flat. Each unique contoured shape becomes apparent; individual fragments of color comprising the painting appear. An abstraction is revealed.

My paintings, like so much we encounter are not what they first appear to be.

In 1985,  Donald received a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics and began a career for 20 plus years in Information Technology.  In 2006, he became HIV Positive.  "My life priorities changed upon discovering my HIV diagnosis. I began to pursue my expressive and creative talents as a visual artist to help me process the changes HIV and its treatment were having on my body and mind."

Rizzo lived and worked in London, England for four years, and during this time traveled throughout Europe. He also traveled to China, India, and South Africa.  Living abroad Donald was exposed to different cultures and learned to view life experiences with a new perspective. "In my art I want the viewer to have a transformational experience.  The image changes based on viewing distance, the amount of lighting, and the angle in which the image is viewed.  At the end of this experience my hope is that the viewer’s perspective is changed."

Shadow Self     (34 X 30)

The shadow self is what sabotages our relationships, jobs, it denies our spirit, keeps us from realizing our destiny and dreams. It is what we sweep under the rug. It gets buried and repressed into our deep unconscious self. The shadow is what we don't want to be. It seems so horrible and grotesque feeding into our greatest fear that someone might discover our dark shameful secret --- further repressing it. Hiding what's inside gives it power, because we don't have the power to chose --- we just react. It is the voice that says we are unloved, undeserving, unworthy, keeping us from what we want or desire. It shows itself through our projection of judgements on others. What we don't own about ourselves we project onto other people. It is the only way to get our attention. terrified of discover the ego disowns it and uses the tool of judgement to protect itself --- but only prevents self realization. When you don't own an aspect of your life --- it runs your life.

Blight     (38 X 38)

Emerge     (36 X 36)

End of 2010     (44 X 36)

Perpetual Adoration     (38 X 38)

Donald's paintings have recently been exhibited at Magnet and can currently be viewed at Bagdad Cafe in San Francisco. You can see more of Donald's work on his website, www.donald-rizzo.com.