The Push Pin Project

Let It Be

etwillia — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 22:20:00 +0000

The Beatles!!!! Arguably the most influential band of all time and on May 8, 1970 the Fab Four released their 12th and final studio album “Let It Be”. I have always been a HUGE fan of the Beatles and absolutely love this album cover. It seemed a perfect place for the Push Pin Project to start.

Each piece is about 2 feet 9 1/2 inches (75 pins by 75 pins) and contains a total of 5,625 pins. For those of you with a keen eye you will notice that John Lennon is just slightly larger than the other three. What can I say, I am new at this whole thing.

Georgia On My Mind

etwillia — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 22:51:39 +0000

After starting with the Let It Be album, I realized that while the smaller pieces allowed me to complete them fairly quickly, I wasn’t able to get as much detail as I would have liked. I decided to try my hand at a piece a bit bigger. I chose this one of Ray Charles Robinson a.k.a. Ray Charles.

After searching through what felt like hundreds of photos, I finally landed on one that I liked. Where the previous Beatles album that I had done was made from a color photo, the photo that I found of Ray Charles was made using mostly sepia tones. I wasn’t sure how the brightly colored push pins (Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, White, and Black) would play out. After about 4 weeks of work I was SO pleased with the final product. I am still amazed at how such bright and bold colors can create such a different look.

The piece is 3 feet 7 inches by 3 feet 7 inches (104 pins by 104 pins) and is made up of 10,816 push pins total.

The King of Pop

etwillia — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 22:48:06 +0000

Michael Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009)

Michael Jackson is probably one of my favorite musicians of all time. I will never forget going to Disneyland with my family and seeing him in “Captian EO”. I was hooked.

The portrait of the King of Pop is taken from his 2005 greatest hits album “The Essential Michael Jackson” and is the biggest piece I have done to date . It is 4 feet by 4 feet (112 pins by 112 pins) and is made up of 12,544 push pins.

The thing I love most about this piece is that the original image I used to create the portrait is black and white (no pun intended). I was uncertain how well the bold colors (Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue) would work in mimicking a black and white piece but found that a black and white image is almost easier to replicate than one that is in color. In fact, I liked the final product so much I decided to try it again with my next piece. SO… stay tuned for future portraits.