“I draw on cups. Yes.”

Julie Greicius  ·  January 5th, 2010

Cheeming Boey does astonishing, finely detailed artwork on white Styrofoam coffee cups.

For most, he draws freehand with only a black Sharpie pen. For others, he does painstaking pointillism. But for a very few, he engraves the cup with a tool gentler than a toothpick, making an almost invisible image. Then, sometimes, titles it after old Depeche Mode lyrics. Some of his cups have been plunged 10,000 feet below sea level, where they shrivel up like Shrinkey Dinks but never lose their appeal. Boey’s work beats back the idea that Styrofoam is a non-biodegradable menace by making it beautiful enough to be, well, indispensable.

Images after the jump, and on Boey’s flickr page and website.

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Julie Greicius is the Art Editor and a regular contributor for The Rumpus. She works as ghostwriter by day and a filter of the fabulous by night. She has an MFA in writing from Columbia University and lives with her husband and two children in Palo Alto, California.

Lori Cain is a residential Realtor with Chinowth & Cohen Realtors serving the greater Tulsa Oklahoma area, including midtown Tulsa, Owasso, Broken Arrow, Bixby, Sand Springs and Jenks. Please visit Lori’s web site, LoriCain.com or call 918-852-5036.