At first glance these colorful pictures look like regular paintings -- but closer inspection reveals the detailed artwork is made from shoelaces that are painstakingly arranged and pinned to the canvas. The stunningly intricate creations are the work of Colombian artist Federico Uribe. This portait of a man with a sunflower, "Ars Poetica," is Uribe's personal favorite.

The term "brainwashing" gets a whimsically literal interpretation in this portrait by Federico Uribe. Note how the shoelaces convey the feeling of a running stream of water and a dangling garden hose.

The titular "dilemma" in this playful portrait is clear; its subject literally doesn't know whether he's coming or going.

Making artworks like these out of shoelaces takes Federico Uribe up to 30 10-hour days.

The feathers fly, literally, in this surrealistic portrait of a man who likes his chicken done rare -- perhaps too rare. Works like these bring $32,000 to $73,000 apiece for artist Federico Uribe.

In this work, artist Federico Uribe uses the medium of colored shoelaces to dilate his image horizontally.

This close-up on 'Smile at Me' helps reveal artist Federico Uribe's unique technique of crafting his works out of different-colored shoelaces pinned to a canvas.

The image of Clark Kent opening his shirt to reveal his Superman uniform underneath is iconic. Artist Federico Uribe upends it in this portrait in which his subject reveals his internal organs instead.

Artist Federico Uribe was born in Bogata, Colombia, in 1962, then moved to Cuba, Mexico, Great Britian and his present location, Miami. By abandoning the traditional medium of paint for using common objects in new ways, he feels he creates works that "communicate joy, beauty and love," according to his website.