Miss Mona Superhero
{{Short description|American artist (born 1970)}}
{{Multiple issues|
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{{Notability|Biography|date=October 2023}}
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{{Infobox visual artist
| name = Miss Mona Superhero
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1970}}
| birth_place = {{nowrap|Abilene, Texas, U.S.}}
| occupation = Visual Artist
| years_active = 2003–present
}}
Miss Mona Superhero, real name unknown, is an American artist, activist, and Northwestern United States personality.{{Cite web|url=https://www.wweek.com/portland/article-23041-duct-tape-artist-mona-superhero.html|title=Duct-Tape Artist Mona Superhero|date=September 10, 2014 }}
The Oregonian has called her a “cult figure in Portland's cabaret-performance world during the 90s”, “subterranean art star”, and “master of the tape-and-cut form.”September 12, 2003 | Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)| VISUAL ARTS DARK STAR OF HUMOR|Author/Byline: D.K. ROW – The Oregonian | Page: 56 | Section: ARTS AND LIVING In the 1990s, she co-founded the influential Danzine periodical and support network for sex workers.{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/working-it-the-magazine-b_b_8201856,|title=Working It: The Activist Art Magazine Fueling Labor Rights for Strippers and Other Sex Workers|access-date=August 4, 2023}}
She's worked since the 2000s as a visual artist specializing in dayglo portraits pasted together from
industrial adhesive tape. She has been described as “perhaps the nation’s premier duct-tape artist.”Tape is on a roll | January 19, 2006 | Oregonian, The (Portland, OR) | Author/Byline: STEVE WOODWARD; The Oregonian | Page: E01 | Section: Living As “staff artist” for Voodoo Doughnut, she creates an enormous mural for each franchise.
Danzine
The woman who became Miss Mona was born in Abilene, TX in 1970.DON'T UNDERSTAND THIS EXHIBIT? STICK WITH IT|April 14, 2003 | Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)|Author/Byline: D.K.ROW, The Oregonian | Page: E01 | Section: LIVING
Aged 12, she moved to Austin and lived for some time in Richmond, VA and Butte, MT.{{Cite web|url=https://www.wweek.com/portland/article-4106-heroine-chic.html|title=Heroine Chic|date=February 9, 2005|website=Willamette Week}}
Following employment stints with a law firm and the food service industry, she found her way to stripping. On a mid-1990s cross-country adult club tour with fellow dancer Teresa Dulce, they became stranded in Portland, OR. By this time, she was already known as “Miss Mona” – a pseudonym tattooed on her knuckles.
Throughout her 2009 memoir Magic Gardens, Portland dancer Liv “Viva Las Vegas” Osthus’ names Mona as guiding inspiration during their time together on stage at iconic Portland strip bar Mary's Club.{{Cite web|url=https://www.portlandmercury.com/Lifestyle/2009/08/27/1609041/i-resolved-to-become-a-stripper-or-kill-myself|title="I Resolved to Become a Stripper or Kill Myself"|first=Viva Las|last=Vegas|website=Portland Mercury}} Mona would appear at the book release party to read passages from the book and perform.{{Cite web|url=https://www.pdxmonthly.com/2009/10/slide-show-las-vegas-lit|title=Slide Show: Las Vegas Lit|website=Portland Monthly}}
Thank You For Supporting The Arts, the documentary about Osthus’ return to stripping following breast cancer, also has Osthus credit Mona as an indispensable mentor whose drolly confrontational approach to sex work “would almost antagonize the viewer.”{{Cite web|url=https://www.portlandmercury.com/film/2018/04/25/19837951/thank-you-for-supporting-the-arts-is-another-chapter-in-the-story-of-viva-las-vegas|title=Thank You for Supporting the Arts Is Another Chapter in the Story of Viva Las Vegas|first=Megan|last=Burbank|website=Portland Mercury}}
Her intermittent dancing career lasted from 1993 to 2002. She also organized and hosted semi-satirical erotic burlesque revues entitled Miss Mona's Cabaret.{{Cite web|url=https://www.underground.xmag.com/archives/6-01-jul98/secret.html|title=A Secret Life 6.01|website=www.underground.xmag.com}} A 20th anniversary reunion was held at the Star Theater in 2019.
{{Cite web|url=https://www.ticketweb.com/event/miss-monas-revue-revue-star-theater-tickets/9332165?pl=star|title=Miss Mona's Revue Revue|accessdate=August 4, 2023}} She has said dancing and art offer a similar “Zen experience.”
In 1995, Superhero and Dulce would go found Danzine – an indie periodical focused on stripper-themed shopping tips, health data, and legal information.
The print run of its first issue was just sixty Xeroxed copies of a single page that the pair passed out around club dressing rooms.May 23, 2003 | Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)| GROUNDBREAKING DANZINE CLOSING AFTER AN 8-YEAR RUN|Author/Byline: ANDY DWORKIN – The Oregonian | Page: B01 | Section: LOCAL STORIES
”Though knocked by some for their knee-jerk politics,” wrote the Oregonian, “Danzine … advocated for the health and rights of the city's sex-workers with zeal and frankness.”May 20, 2005 | Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)| VISUAL ARTS SHOWS OF NOTE DANZINE THOUGH KNOCKED BY SOME|Author/Byline: D.K. ROW – The Oregonian | Page: 23 | Section: ARTS AND LIVING}} Three years later, it would sponsor the United States’ first sex worker film festival.{{Cite web|url=https://archive.psuvanguard.com/more-miscellany-to-be-found-at-miss-monas-rack/|title=More miscellany to be found at Miss Mona's Rack|first=Angie|last=Kincheloe|date=October 10, 2001|website=Vanguard}}
Eventually, as other dancers began contributing, Danzine grew to encompass a number of different social outreach programs including a needle exchange van that disposed of 180K+ used syringes, a tip line warning escorts about dangerous clientele, and, adjoining the nonprofit's publishing offices, a vintage store called Miss Mona's Rack.
June 30, 2005 | Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)| DANZINE’S OUTREACH|Author/Byline: Su-jin Yim – The Oregonian | Page: E01 | Section: LIVING}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.wweek.com/portland/article-1627-year-end-2002-look.html,|title=Year End 2002-- LOOK|accessdate=August 4, 2023}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.wweek.com/portland/article-383-a-portland-kind-of-cool-extreme-fashion-show.html,|title=Get a Load of That Rack!|accessdate=August 4, 2023}}
In his Portland travelog, Fugitives and Refugees, Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk describes the shambling inventory as “secondhand shoes, clothes and jewelry, plus razors, condoms, … tampons, [and] a staggering variety of lubricants, with all profits going to support community job training and risk-reduction programs that teach HIV and other STD prevention.”{{cite book |last=Palahniuk |first=Chuck |title=Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk in Portland, Oregon |date=December 18, 2007 |page=104 |publisher=Crown |isbn=978-0-307-42075-6}}
Over eight years and 18 issues – the last running 36 pages with glossy cover and national distribution – an estimated 350 volunteers donated 27K hours of their time assisting various components of the DIY project.
Cutbacks in the Multnomah County Health Department and a generally weakening economy forced Danzine and Miss Mona's Rack to permanently close in the summer of 2003 following a final fundraising ‘Last Fiesta’ headlined by Storm Large.{{Cite web|url=https://thebody.com/article/oregon-sex-workers-advocacy-service-closes|title=Oregon: Sex Workers' Advocacy Service Closes|date=May 28, 2003 |accessdate=August 4, 2023}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.wweek.com/portland/article-2031-murmurs.html|title=Murmurs|date=May 7, 2003|website=Willamette Week}}June 30, 2005 | Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)| NAKED AMBITION A PORTLAND STRIPPER MOVES ON WITH HER CRUSADE TO IMPROVE THE LIVES OF SEX-TRADE WORKERS|Author/Byline: SU-JIN YIM – The Oregonian | Page: E01 | Section: LIVING}}
The Danzine HQ would be re-created the following year inside New York City's Whitney Museum as part of a group exhibition that also included works by Sophie Calle, Alfredo Jaar, and Yoko Ono.
Duct tape
After the fall of Miss Mona's Rack, she spent a few years traveling around the United States before returning to Portland with the same stage name but new artistic focus – layering slivers of tape atop melamine slabs for brash, intricate, candy-colored pop art relief imagery.
April 14, 2003 | Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)| DON'T UNDERSTAND THIS EXHIBIT? STICK WITH IT|Author/Byline: D.K.Row – The Oregonian | Page: E01 | Section: LIVING}}{{Cite web|url=https://archive.psuvanguard.com/muy-rom%ED%80%8C%EF%BF%BDntico/|title=Muy romántico!|first=Justin|last=Morrison|date=February 9, 2005|website=Vanguard}}
Although most critics have assumed she primarily utilizes duct tape, she's said that the (locally based) Winston Tape Company also supplies her with “[[Detectable_tape|
utility tape]], strapping tape, masking tape,
cloth tape, copper tape, gold foil tape … this camouflage tape that's neat but … too busy, it'll drive you nuts.” Stashes of rare and discontinued tapes have been hidden.
The tape's set down, X-Acto-cut-strip by strip, onto MDF panels with vinyl coating to ensure the stick and then fully varnished eight times.
According to her own story, she found herself drawn to a roll in a Virginia hardware store and started assembling musician portraits. "I almost cried the day when I discovered strapping tape," she told the Oregonian.Jan 19, 2006 | Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)| Tape is on a roll|Author/Byline: Steve Woodward – The Oregonian | Page: E01 | Section: Living}}
Superhero was entirely self-taught and has said that these pieces marked her first foray into the world of fine art. Despite the lack of formal instruction or sales/promotional assistance, she has become internationally known and won several notable commissions.
Her influences include Love and Rockets comics, Bollywood posters, Soviet agitprop, and Miles Davis album covers.
Noting similarities to the commercialism of Andy Warhol, colors of Peter Max, and sheer laboriousness of pointillism, an early Oregonian review raved that her “cutting-edge … images of slinky roller-girls, a silhouette of Miles Davis, voodoo icons with purple vests and sexy Pachinko pinball machine goddesses (ka-ching!) are an eyeful of vivid living color.” Marveling at the “sprawling, neo-surrealist tableaux,” Willamette Week considered “the imagery … sexy, compositionally dense and chromatically bold.”{{Cite web|url=https://www.wweek.com/portland/article-23041-duc-tape-artist-mona-superhero.html,|title=Duct-Tape Artist Mona Superhero|accessdate=August 4, 2023}}
By the time of her 2003 breakout Portland exhibition – a Pop Art group show entitled SinTax at Belinki & DuPrey Gallery – word of Mona's duct tape art had already begun to spread from her contribution to collaborative shows in Seattle and New York.
{{Cite web|url=https://www.portlandmercury.com/Art/2004/12/09/32681/sin-tax|title=Sin Tax|first=Ryan|last=Dirks|website=Portland Mercury}}April 14, 2003 | Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)| FIRST THURSDAY CRITIC'S PICKS GALLERIES ARE OPEN|Author/Byline: D.K.Row – The Oregonian | Page: E01 | Section: LIVING}} A show at Aalto Lounge curated by Danzine-vet Marne Lucas would follow.2003 | Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)| DON'T UNDERSTAND THIS EXHIBIT? STICK WITH IT|Author/Byline: D.K.Row – The Oregonian | Page: E01 | Section: LIVING}}
The next year, her piece for Portland's Motel Gallery drew praise as a standout work intended to work with the gallery's spatial restraint – 100 different artists were each asked to fill one square foot of the Motel Gallery's wall.March 4, 2004 | Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)| FIRST THURSDAY ART WALK ON WILD SIDE|Author/Byline: D.K.Row – The Oregonian | Page: E01 | Section: LIVING}}
Also that spring, she had an exhibition at the Roq la Rue gallery in Seattle.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thestranger.com/visual-art/2004/04/15/17830/visual-arts-listings|title=Visual Arts Listings|first=Emily|last=Hall|website=The Stranger}} Her fourth show, the Miller Brewing Company-sponsored “Polydelphic Oblivion” was held at Williamsburg, Brooklyn, McCaig-Welles gallery.{{cite web |url=https://www.mccaigwelles.com/mccaigwellesgmailcoms|title=McCaig-Welles gallery}} {{dead link|date=August 2023}}{{cite web |url=http://1995-2015.undo.net/it/mostra/21936s|title=Undo 1995-2015}} {{dead link|date=August 2023}}
In 2005, she debuted 13 new works in a major show at Portland's Gallery 500.February 3, 2005 | Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)| CRITIC’S PICKS|Author/Byline: D.K.Row – The Oregonian | Page: E01 | Section: LIVING}} “Superhero's art reputation has been rising ever since … the Aalto Lounge [exhibit] a few years ago garnered critical exposure,” wrote the Oregonian about her “Art Deco cartoons.”February 4, 2005 | Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)| SHOWS OF NOTE MONA SUPERHERO SUPERHERO HAS ATTAINED LEGENDARY|Author/Byline: D.K.Row – The Oregonian | Page: 25 | Section: ARTS AND LIVING}}
“Since the utility tape was cut,” observed the PSU Vanguard, “rich vivid colors stood out solid with sharp tight lines [and] thoughtful layering – one piece had a massive boom-box … under a layered red sky [that] you could only see … [when] close enough to lick it.”
Willamette Week noted that her “intricately fashioned … album art-meets-Byzantium tableaux” had grown “more complex in imagery and technique.”
While on tour, Pat MacDonald flew in to perform at her ‘First Thursday’ opening.January 28, 2005 | Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)| NIGHTCRAWLER 1. HOMEGROWN OREGON ARTISTS ANNE WEISS|Author/Byline: NATHAN SKIDMORE – Special to The Oregonian | Page: 17 | Section: ARTS AND LIVING}}
Also that year. she was asked to design the front cover for Hillstomp’s second LP The Woman That Ended The World. Willamette Week described the resulting cover as “a vivid duct-tape work by local artist Miss Mona Superhero of a striking woman leaving a man on his knees at a rail station.”{{Cite web|url=https://www.wweek.com/portland/article-4830-the-band-that-continued-to-roll.html|title=The Band That Continued To Roll|date=September 21, 2005|website=Willamette Week|access-date=August 4, 2023}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/duct-tape-and-domination-2/|title=Duct tape and domination|first=Allison|last=Plean|date=June 23, 2006|website=www.steamboatpilot.com|access-date=August 4, 2023}}
A decade later, in their annual Best of Portland cavalcade, Willamette Week readers voted for Mona as Portland's Best Visual Artist above runner-up Sienna Morris.{{Cite web|url=https://www.wweek.com/portland/article-25089-best-of-portland-readers-poll.html|title=Best of Portland Readers' Poll|date=July 15, 2015|website=Willamette Week|access-date=August 4, 2023}}
By 2006, her pieces were priced between $400 and $1000. About her autumn exhibition at Rox la Rue, Seattle Weekly commented: “Sure, Mona Superhero’s … gimmicky … but we’ll forgive her because the work is so damn accomplished. These pieces are sexy, brash, and surreal [yet] surprisingly tender.”{{Cite web|url=https://www.seattleweekly.com/arts/visual-arts-calendar-7/|title=Visual Arts Calendar|date=October 9, 2006|website=Seattle Weekly|access-date=August 4, 2023}}
Shows at Boston's RHYS Gallery, Los Angeles’ Black Maria Gallery, and Portland's Salon d’Merde would follow in the coming years.{{Cite web|url=https://www.portlandmercury.com/my-what-a-busy-week/2009/10/29/1783412/my-what-a-busy-week|title=My, What A Busy Week!|website=Portland Mercury|access-date=August 4, 2023}}1995–2015.undo.net/it/mostra/68860 She was part of the 2009 NYC group exhibition “All That Glitters Is Gold” curated by Cope2.
{{cite web | title=Art Crimes: Graffiti Shows and Events 2009 | website=Polski SunSITE | date=28 November 2009 | url=https://ftp.icm.edu.pl/packages/graffiti.old/index/history2009.html | access-date=4 August 2023}} In 2011. she was among the creators invited to take part in the Artwork from the Void program.{{cite book |isbn=978-0615517643 |title=Artwork from the Void: 150 Pieces Inspired by Sensory Deprivation |last1=On |first1=Float |last2=Talley |first2=Graham |last3=Jahromi |first3=Ashkahn |last4=Zepeda |first4=Quinn |last5=Messer |first5=Christopher |date=August 16, 2011 |publisher=Float On }}{{cite web|url=https://coincidencebooks.com/files/artwork-press.pdf|title=Fantastic! I'm surprised the tank hasn't been made illegal|website=coincidencebooks.com|access-date=4 August 2023}}
The next year, she partnered with PDX non-profit P:EAR Mentor for a summer exhibition with proceeds aiding at-risk homeless youth and contributed a piece to the “Faux Masters” at Old Town’s Faux Museum alongside Joe Sacco
Melody Owen, and other nationally prominent talents.{{cite web | title=Mona Superhero show with p:ear youth opening, June 7th | website=p | date=9 March 2012 | url=http://pearmentor.blogspot.com/2012/03/mona-superhero-show-with-pear-youth.html | access-date=4 August 2023}}
By 2014, date of her Bill Murray-themed show at Good: A Gallery, Willamette Week believed recent portraits were “technically and thematically her tightest ever” and, comparing her plight to local artist Bruce Conkle found it “more than a little damning of Portland's sometimes shortsighted gallery culture that …
she isn't represented by a Portland gallery, even though her work … is exhibited far beyond the Northwest.”
At this stage, Mona's artwork averaged around $800 per work at this point, and she had started to market prints, stationery, and accessories on Etsy.{{Cite web|url=https://www.wweek.com/portland/article-23041-duct-tape-artist-mona-superhero.html,|title=Duct-Tape Artist Mona Superhero|access-date=August 4, 2023}} She has contributed work to and appeared as symposium guest during the annual Sex Workers’ Art Show held each year by the Portland Institute for Contemporary Arts.{{Cite web|url=http://www.pica.org/events/NoHumanInvolved|title=Portland Institute for Contemporary Art - PICA|access-date=August 4, 2023}}
Mona serves as in-house muralist for the Portland-based Voodoo Donuts franchise and designs a site-specific piece for each location.
The 8X16’ works commissioned for shops in Eugene and Denver were her largest attempted to that point and required months to fully finish. “Your Wish Is My Command”, at the Orlando outpost, features a genie's piercing stare above a Froot Loop-encrusted crystal donut.[https://10best.com/interests/food-travel/voodoo-doughnut-is-now-working-its-magic-on-the-east-coast/kingdommagictravel.com/page/6/?cat=1 Voodoo Doughnut is now working its magic on the east coast] {{dead link|date=August 2023}}{{cite web | last=Gilanfar | first=Darius | title=Voodoo Doughnut is Now Open at Universal CityWalk | website=Discover Universal | date=2 May 2018 | url=https://blog.discoveruniversal.com/eat-and-drink/voodoo-doughnut-now-open/ | access-date=4 August 2023}} The mural adorning Austin's franchise shows a pair of space-helmeted adventurers on horseback framing a disco death star.{{cite web| title="Keep Austin Weird" in a Texas Weekend | website=We Married Adventure| date=29 March 2018 | url=https://wemarriedadventure.com/2018/03/28/keep-austin-weird-in-a-weekend/ | access-date=4 August 2023}}
References
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External links
- [https://issuu.com/haupt/docs/9783258601311 Miss Mona's Revue Revue featuring Rain Storm]
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