Miniature World: Artist crafts little models of adult stores, churches and shops

Although all of his pieces are entirely fictional, he does begin each one with hours of research, sketching and planning. He'll take inspiration from hundreds of photographs of buildings that he's collected over the years.

Using a wide variety of materials include foam, paper, plastic and lightweight wood – Ryan also loves to scavenge litter found on his walks around Chicago, which he then repurposes for his artworks.

He explains more of his process: "Once I develop a good direction, I begin to mock things up and plan the structural supports for what will eventually become the building facade. From there I just ping pong around a bunch until I start to flesh out the sculpture, adding detail and textures as I go.

"Once the overall piece is put together I start to massage it a bit, adding and removing things to get the desired look and feel that I’m after. This part can make or break it, since most of the narrative of the sculpture comes from this process."

Via This Isn't Happiness | All images courtesy of Ryan Thomas Monahan