When his company sent 30 computers to be junked at the local recycling center, Arizona artist Joe Dragt had an epiphany.

“Seeing the stack of old computers, the idea just struck me,” he says. “The motherboards can make for a really neat canvas. The complexity and patterns of all the circuits could make for stunning backgrounds.”

Dragt picks over computers like an eco-conscious vulture, saving motherboards for canvases and eye-catching circuits for sculptures. Leftover plastic and scrap metal are recycled. Hazardous elements go to a computer-disposal plant in Phoenix. Any cash he earns recycling all this stuff buys more paint.

Here's a look at some of his work.

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Here, as with his other pieces, Dragt gives a sly nod to his canvas's original purpose. The motherboard processes data like a brain. The circuits move information like synapses.

"My decision to paint a brain in a mason jar was quite simple," Dragt says. "I have a deep interest in human anatomy and love creating anatomically themed images.

Image: Joe Dragt