Chat queen Oprah to Barcode Oprah

The fear of Doomsday is what inspired Scott Blake to turn Oprah Winfrey's image into an extraordinary piece of art -- the Barcode Oprah.

In 1999, everyone was afraid of the Y2K bug, says Scott Blake. So I took all those worries about zeros and ones -- computer code -- and turned it into art, he said in an interview.

The regular ISDN codes found on every book, magazine, appliance and packaged grocery item are used by Blake to create his wonderful pieces of art.

Blake has recently made a barcode image of Winfrey, which is made up of 1,824 ISBN images, each one a selection from Oprah's Book Club.

Just like Y2K passed by without any big disaster, Blake feels the world will get used to TV without Oprah's show.

I started with Jesus, he said. And I knew I'd go on to all those legends whom we know just by their first name -- Elvis, Madonna, Marilyn.

I figured you had to choose Oprah after Jesus because she's more biblical than any other celebrity.

Blake says he is not a big fan of Oprah, although some people think he is. But he says his art represents how these celebrities have been turned into commodities.

Blake is now turning his attention to a Sept. 11 flip book and a rendering of journalist Amy Goodmanin QR barcode (the next generation of ISDN).

I haven't heard from Amy yet. But I'm a big fan of Democracy Now, and I hope she gets my work. he said, according to a report in weirdnews.