Indiana Artists Create With Papier-Mache and Imagination

by Jeff Himler

From The Dispatch, Oct 8, 1999

Indiana PA --Today's filmmakers spend millions on computers to summon dinosaurs from the prehistoric past and set them loose in theaters around the world. Gene Fenton is inspired instead by old black and white monster movies. He produces dinosaurs and other exotic creatures with a low-tech approach that is high on inventiveness.

Working with fellow Indiana artist Lisa Omasta, Fenton uses the bare-bones medium of papier-mache to add dimension to his fantasies of giant lizards and dragons on the prowl. "I watched my fair share of dinosaur movies in the '60s and '70s when I was young," said Fenton. He tries to strike a balance in style between the clunky behemoths pictured in those decades and today's slick, digitally-enhanced versions.

"I like dinosaurs with lots of scales and spikes because they give me the greatest opportunity to experiment with color and texture," he said. Fenton begins each creature with a core armature constructed from any variety of handy materials: cardboard, plastic pop bottles, masking tape and balloons. He then fleshes out this initial framework with layers of papier-mache: small strips of paper dipped in a paste of flour and water. In the case of the balloon, "It will shrink and leave a papier-mache shell around it."

Omasta, who brings a passion for Halloween and horror movies to the paper art form, has pasted together giant spiders as well as ancient reptiles. "A lot of people are afraid of spiders," Omasta said. "I don't particularly like them, but in papier-mache, I can get really creative making tentacles and legs."

To construct industrial size insects she's used such building blocks as tin foil, chicken wire, toilet paper rolls and her children's empty juice boxes. "That's what's fun about papier-mache," she said. "There are so many recyclable things in your house you can use. It's so cheap to do, and it's wonderful when it's done." For instance, she snipped compartments from an egg carton to serve as the eight eyes for one of her arachnids.

Fenton holds a degree in sculpture and printmaking from IUP and a master's degree in sculpture. During his college career, he invested most of his efforts in abstract art. "At the time, it was the thing to do. If you'd told me back then I'd be doing papier-mache dinosaurs, I'd have said you were nuts." But three years ago, he noticed a photo of a man who had won an award by assembling a resin dinosaur model. That's when he decided to craft his own Jurassic sculptures. "I wanted to use clay, but I didn't have the facilities," he said. "So I started playing with papier-mache."

Appropriately, he met his future partner in art at a Halloween party two years ago. "He had made a head of papier-mache to go with his costume, and I thought it looked great," Omasta recalled. "It was a bug with big fangs," Fenton said, although he admitted he had originally intended to portray a Cardassian (one of the alien villains of Star Trek).

Omasta, who is self-taught at sketching, began exploring papier-mache with Fenton's assistance. The two have since combined their talents and common interest in monsters under the title of G and L Papier-Mache. They've displayed their works in an Indiana storefront and are hoping to take on students who want to learn papier-mache basics. At this summer's Brush Valley Day festival, they conducted a workshop and provided a papier-mache fox figure for a fundraising prize.

"We enjoy doing this, and we're hoping for it to really take off," Omasta says. She and Fenton believe papier-mache, which for many years has been relegated to elementary art classes, has been given a bad rap and is ready for a comeback as a legitimate form of expression alongside its more accepted cousins: clay sculpture and pottery. "You have to treat papier-mache like clay," said Fenton. "At times, you have to get your hands into it, squeeze it and mold it." He admits that the paper medium can be tedious.

While clay is readily manipulated, layers of papier-mache must be allowed to partially dry and harden before the artist uses a knife or sandpaper to strip away unwanted material and recontours the figure with freshly dampened swatches. The longest Fenton has ever worked at a single clip on a papier-mache figure has been four hours. He said, "You need to know when to leave it alone and come back later."

Though the ingredients for papier-mache are simple, molding them into a well-proportioned figure is no child's play. "It takes a lot of patience," Fenton said, noting details are crucial to achieving the desired effect, whether it's his own aggressive dinos or Omasta's more serene models. "You've got to get the eyes right or you don't capture the atmosphere of it," he said. Placement of nostrils and ear holes also are important in dinosaur design. "It's a learning experience," said Omasta. "The more you do, the better you get."

Fenton and Omasta's paper figures may bring to life powerful creatures from the realm of the unknown. But they're no match for such actual species as cats and chipmunks. Said Omasta, "I left one of my bugs outside to dry on top of my hot tub and part of the antenna was eaten off." She blames the flour ingredient for inviting illicit nibbling. Wasps may also mistake the wet paper shell for a cozy nest. Exposure to rain or dew is another problem for papier-mache items left outdoors. A preferred choice is drying the works inside, in front of a dehumidifier. Says Omasta, "It sucks the water right out of them" in as little as a day and a half, though it may take longer still for the innermost layers to completely stiffen.

Fenton and Omasta are determined to gain recognition for their chosen art form, but they don't intend to stray from the quirky nature of their pieces. The creations of both G and L artists have been featured in the display window of The Costume Shop on Indiana's North Sixth Street. Owner Donna Stewart says her customers have been captivated by the changing cast of creatures in her storefront, from an over-sized beetle to Omasta's current offering, a green and red spider enticing onlookers into its web.

Omasta said the eight-pound arachnid is meant to remind viewers of the colorful, creepy toys of their youth. "It's like the rubber ones you see when you take your kids into the dime store," she said. "We didn't want a black or a brown spider. We want our pieces to be unique."

Currently, Fenton is crafting a duckbill dinosaur for display at Cafe Curio, an Indiana coffeehouse located near the IUP campus. An earlier dinosaur has made it to the pages of a horror movie magazine, Famous Monsters of Filmland, and to the UHF dial - on Enigma Theater, a late night horror movie showcase produced in Mississippi.

Fenton's papier-mache works are getting a public airing in regional art circles in "dinAgAtors, etc.," a two-person show through October 30 at Studio Z Gallery, located on East Carson Street on the south side of Pittsburgh. Eight of his horned and fanged sculptures will be paired with gallery owner Kathleen Zimpicki's paintings, which are inspired by alligators.

"I've known the gallery owner for a while," Fenton said. "I thought I would put one piece in there for display, and she said, 'Why not share a show with me?'" Past G and L works have ranged up to three feet in length, but they are scaling down slightly so they can pose two or more creatures in a single window display. 

Fenton plans to take his papier-mache creations even farther out from the ordinary, combining aspects of dinosaurs and insects into mutant strains from his own imagination. He's also planning a sea change, hoping to craft monsters inspired by the decorations on old ocean maps. In addition, he wants to flex his skills by making bats and other papier-mache creatures with wings. But, "It's going to take some time" to mimic the intricate folds of such appendages in paper. It took him two months to craft a two-headed dragon with wings.

But paper alone may not be enough to contain his dino-mania. He said, "I'd like to make castings of the dinosaurs and I may do some in welded steel."

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