Far, far away, on a distant planet in another universe called Los Angeles in the 60s,
I appeared on Tom Hatton’s Saturday morning “Popeye Television Cartoon Show.”
During a break between cartoons, Tom showed a group of my paper sculptures
and talked about what a wonderful artist that Leo Monahan must be. I was sitting there smiling and nodding approval.

Then he said, “Leo is going to demonstrate how he makes all these wonderful things
from paper.”

I had my X-acto knife and scissors at hand as I spoke about the dangers of the blades and not to try this at home. Then I said I would make paper “somethings” for the kiddies
as I dramatically swept in a fresh sheet of Strathmore, 2-ply paper.

I positioned my left hand on the surface to hold it in place, and holding the knife above the paper, I looked into the camera and, in my best announcer’s voice announced,
“I will now cut something.”

I made a sweeping cut and nearly cut off the tip of my left index finger. I stood there for a long moment as I bled red all over the Strathmore, 2-ply paper, which was then the same shade of white as Tom Hatton’s face.

I didn’t panic. I was Mr. Cool, and with perfect on-camera composure I looked into the lens, smiled, and said, “That’s all folks!”

I’ve done a few demonstrations over the years but my “Popeye” cut-up has haunted me every time.

Last week I did three demonstrations at the Grovewood Gallery in Asheville, in the rooms where my exhibit is being shown. They were on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday, which turned out to be good days because the sessions were all well attended.

First Demo

First Demo Close-up

Sunday. I began with the same introduction of the X-acto knife and scissors including the warnings of not cutting yourself and, “don’t let the knife roll off the table and stick in the top of your foot!” This has happened to me several times and there isn’t a band-aid
big enough to hold down that fountain.

Second Demo

Tuesday. There were a few more people, and I elaborated about the different papers used in my paper sculptures including: water color paper, German wallpaper, specialty papers and hand made paper, (which I don’t make), and the different weights of the same Strathmore paper used in the Popeye slashing.

Of course, the warnings of the dangers of the tools of the trade were repeated,
and I added a very mild joke about something or other that went over well.

Third Demo

Third Demo Close-up

Thursday. Standing room only! Where had this bunch come from and how do they know about me? Must be that photo stuck on the bulletin board at the post office. Or, the nice write-up in the Asheville Citizen Times.

Same equipment warnings, paper information as before, and I did a lot of cutting, scoring, and bending. Leo Monahan showing off.

I tossed in two great dog jokes that are always safe in an unknown audience.
I cut geometric and organic examples and explained the use of simple and complex
symbols in communication and storytelling. I ran overtime because a big crowd
always asks questions.

It was fun for all, and I gave everyone a free poster just because no one fell asleep
for once.

Thanks for visiting me…

leo

The Beauty From Wood: Natural & Paper Forms exhibit will be up until the end of this month. For more information, go to the Grovewood Gallery site.

One for the money. Of course it’s about the money. I tried living on applause once and it didn’t work. I was a paper sculpture illustrator in the “Art for money” game for nearly 50 years, doing jobs for art directors and art buyers in advertising agencies and publications in lots of countries. Migod how the money rolled in.

Two for the show. It’s no longer Art for money, it’s Money for art now, it’s the same game but no more art directors. The paper sculpture techniques are the same, but now I’m the art director. Personal art, gallery art, fine art, whatever label you put on it, has been my reason to get up every morning and go down to the studio. I give my self a pat on the back, a little polite applause and cut, bend, fold, and paint paper into something reasonably viewable and, perhaps, sellable.

Three to get ready. The following examples are some of the work from my current exhibit at the Grovewood Gallery in Asheville, North Carolina. After my last exhibit, they suggested that I do more of the white on white sculptures that had been successful and popular. My first thought was, great, I don’t have to paint them. Everything will be so much easier. What the hell was I thinking!!!!

My thinking was wrong, wrong, wrong…In my previous work color solved problems of contrast, texture and content. Now, with white on white, I had to make the contrasts, textures, and content with highlight and shadow. Color and painting techniques solved most of the problems and covered up a lot of mistakes. This is a sculpture from my last exhibit.

Jimmy's Boat (Sold)

There isn’t a bit of white in this piece even though I only used white paper. I paint images when I intend to make a colored piece or can’t seem to solve elements of a composition in any other way. So in this exhibition, I decided to use color in the work as background and accents. Abandoning color all together was out of the question for me. This example of a rising swan is all white except for the mat, background, and beak.

Morning Thunder

I repeated some previous themes for this exhibition including the wrapped bundles that are based on my youth in the Black Hills with Ben Black Elk as my Sioux mentor. Sioux bundles were wrapped symbols important to a warrior and hidden, but mine burst out with the things of the hills that were all around me in my childhood. I have no secrets and I show you everything. This is one of several bundles in the exhibit.

Antelope Horn Bundle

I have repeated the images of quaking aspen and birch groves in the Black Hills many times. They stand out in stark white contrast with the dark green ponderosa pines that cover those mountains. Here is my current version with color used as background.

Fragile Forest

I exhibit two versions of Owls. Here is one of the owl pieces, among tree limbs with color as background, and light accents on the leaves.

Owl on a Limb

Here is Pegasus, the mythological winged horse, all white on a background of brown.

Pegasus

Those are a few of the twenty pieces in the exhibition but I had to include one large, fully colored image in this example of wind.

Wind

And four to go…

Thanks for visiting me, and please visit the exhibit at the Grovewood Gallery to see the rest of the work.

leo