Tag Archives: leaves

It’s a Wrap…

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When I started making bundles they were based on a loose, uneducated, shallow, interpretation of Sioux medicine bundles that were mentioned to me by my Sioux mentor, Ben Black Elk. Everything he said impressed me. I was in my early teens when he lived in Keystone just across the creek from us during the summers and posed for tourists at Mount Rushmore.

I’ve done many bundles since 1985 when I introduced them at the Peppertree Ranch show, in the Santa Ynez Valley, north of my home in Los Angeles. Now they only relate to Medicine Bundles because in the primitive years they were the impetus. I describe them in many ways now, wraps, bunches, assemblies, packages, groupings, batches, collections, accumulations, and sometimes, they’re … well, bundles.

I make inventories of paper sculpture versions of feathers, leaves, horns, weavings, insects, plants, symbols, and many other elements that are cut, manipulated, painted, and put away in pizza boxes for future use. I draw upon these inventories when attempting to assemble something.

These are some of the contents of one of the pizza boxes before brushing off the crumbs and painting.

These are some of the contents of one of the pizza boxes before brushing off the crumbs and painting.

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They become collage in dimension without much attention to content or reality. In Butterfly Bundle, are the wings enormous or is the bundle very tiny on normal size butterfly wings? Who cares, not me. I collage elements because they fit, seem right, make a statement, or complete an idea. And, remember, at my age, it has to be fun or funny…

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I never know how to title a piece of art. In the early 60s I went to a gallery opening on La Cienega Blvd. on a Friday night art walk. Richard Rubens, a great painting instructor at The Chouinard Art Institute was showing, and one of the works was titled, “In back of beyond.” I was so impressed, and don’t think I have ever reached that level of clever obscurity. I have tried. Oh man how I’ve tried. The bundle pictured above is called, “Good Fortune.”

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Maybe I should have titled this, “The Underbelly of Autumn”. Instead it’s called, “Autumn Bundle.” My titles are so prosaic, you would think I’m trying to sell the stuff off of a chain link fence.

White Tail Bundle

White Tail Bundle

Here for your musical enjoyment are a number of badly titled bundles that shall remain title-free in this post. I’ll be your entertainer here for the unforeseeable future and I’ll come back when I can’t stay so long. Don’t forget to tip your waitress. Good evening.

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At this time I want to thank the many friends who save their pizza boxes for me for without them there would be no filing system and more paper all over the place.

Thanks for visiting me …

leo

P.S. My work is at the Grovewood Gallery in Asheville, NC. Also, I will soon have new work in the Asheville Airport Gallery.

I Must Leaf You Now

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Dear Reader,

I must leaf you now,
Soaring to mold a new life.
Dragonflies lead me.

Fresh October winds carry the leaf, all decked out in its autumn suit of colors, a real show off, an organic dandy, the full range of M&M candy. Autumn is my favorite season and the subject of many paper sculptures since we moved to the mountains of western NC. I’m a leaf picker, a leaf presser and an interpreter of these flamboyant days

Hands picking leaves.

This color wheel is painted in soft tints of the 12 colors in circular arrangement that connects the two ends of the color spectrum. The leaves are painted with a brush and sponge for hue and texture. There is no plan for them. Whatever happens happily happens.

Dragonfly Bones

We had a cold snap and every leaf in the county shivered, looked at their leaf mates and said, “Well, I guess that’s it, time to put on our warm, butterfly colors, get all toned up and flutter into the wind.” Hopefully, dragonflies guide them to the forest floor where they can mingle with the billions of colorful leaves, butterfly, and dragonfly bones.

Down there, among the layers of leaves, the ladybugs search for a warm abode to spend the winter. They fly, but Florida is too far, so Miami is out of the question. They finally cluster in every crook and nanny of our houses.

Ladybug Bones

Geese come flying down our valley in gaggles, and goose groupies gather to watch them bathe in bunches in the ponds, lakes, and rivers. The trees of autumn that line the banks in Indian summer become my paper feathers, painted in fall hues.

Geese in Indian Summer

Indian summer takes me back to the Black Hills, the Sioux, and my boyhood search for arrowheads and the imaginary cache of feathers in a headdress, left behind for me to find, decades later. Ben Black Elk said they wouldn’t be there, but keep looking anyway.

Sioux Autumn

I’ll write about autumn until the first skittle of snow touches the bare trees.

My show opening went very well and the collage workshops begin soon so I have a lot to look forward to. I’m like the ladybugs; I have a warm house, a sheepskin-lined jacket, a neighbor boy to shovel the little bit of snow that falls, and bourbon hot toddies.

“At my age I don’t care about health food. I need all the preservatives I can get. I live in my own little world. But that’s ok, they know me here.”

Thanks for coming to the show and for visiting me . . .

leo

I’m never satisfied with what I know.
Only, with what I can find out.

“Leaf Hands Color Wheel” is available for $1000.
“Dragonfly Bones II” is available for $2000.  SOLD!
“Geese in Indian Summer” is available for $2800.

Both pieces are at my exhibit at the Grovewood Gallery.

My work can be purchased at the Grovewood Gallery on the grounds of the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC. Click on the following link if you’re interested in one of my collage workshops.