Malaysian-born artist Cheeming Boey uses a simple sharpie pen to turn simple Styrofoam cups into unique works of art that sell for hundreds, even thousands of dollars.

Styrofoam cups don’t usually attract a lot of attention, unless they’re mentioned in discussions about environment pollution. They’re cheap and disposable, so  no one really cares about them. Neither did Cheeming Boey, until six years ago, when he discovered they could be used as an original canvas for his sharpie doodles. He was in little coffee shop, in Irvine, California, when he got the urge to draw, but found himself without a piece of paper. So he just grabbed a Styrofoam cup from the trash can and unleashed his artistic talent. The result surprised Boey himself, and the artist immediately realized he was up to something.

“I’m often asked, ‘Why don’t you draw on something more solid – like a ceramic cup? Yes, Styrofoam is kind of flimsy but it’s strong in other ways,” he told the OC Register. “When you drop it, it never cracks.” So he stuck to his new-found canvas, and soon, sharpie-drawn Styrofoam cups started piling up on his shelf at work. His friends and colleagues were amazed, but then one of them said “Sure, they’re nice, but who’d pay money for that?” You should NEVER tell a stubborn person that no one’s going to buy their stuff, because they will eventually prove you wrong. Boey vowed to become the Styrofoam Cup King, and now his impressive artworks sell for hundreds of dollars, sometimes even thousands.

Cheeming Boey’s Styrofoam cup doodles have been exhibited in various art galleries, and the artist himself appeared in promotional campaigns for Sharpie permanent markers. “It was a mistake,” the artist says about how it all began, “but sometimes they make the best stuff.”

via Comics Alliance

Photos © Cheeming Boey. For more doodle madness check out his Flickr stream.