Months before Jack Banham turns 101 on Dec. 14, he is still doing what has occupied him for the past 16 years: cutting pieces of paper, fitting them together and creating worlds.
The Rockville Centre resident has brought his exhibit, “My World of Paper Art,” to the Uniondale Public Library, where it will remain on display through Aug. 31. The collection features landscapes, houses, flowers, and figures built from pieces of paper layered and glued together.
For Banham, seeing his art displayed remains difficult to believe.
“I love it,” he said about the Uniondale exhibit. “I can’t believe it — I never thought anything like this would occur.”
Banham began creating paper art in 2010, after experimenting with mediums. He worked with clay, wood and stained glass, carved chess pieces, and made furniture before turning it into a challenge.
“I started with clay,” Banham said. “I worked my way to wood, stained glass, you name it — I worked on it.”
His earliest pieces were made with construction paper, but as the paper faded, Banham experimented with ways to preserve it before switching to materials.
“People often ask me, ‘How do you get this to stick?’ and I surprise everybody,” he said. “I give them a look and say, ‘You don’t understand? You never heard of Elmer’s Glue?’”
His interest in creativity began in childhood. Banham recalled his mother giving him a mixture of flour and water while she baked bread or cake. He would shape the dough-like material.
“My mother would put dough and water, mix it and put it on the floor,” Banham said. “I would pick it up, and that’s how it all began.”
Banham’s creations remain a mystery until he begins working. He does not trace images or use references but instead relies on memory and imagination.
“He has some sort of vision,” said his daughter, Eva, while examining a tree he created using a branch for the trunk and green paper outlined in white for the leaves. The piece was completed this month.
Banham often finds materials in nature, particularly in his daughter Susan’s backyard, where he spots branches or rocks and asks his children to save them for pieces. Those natural elements add quality to his artwork.
“This is all my imagination — every bit of it,” Banham said. “I make up my own leaves, but I make them to look like leaves.”
The time required to complete each piece depends on its size, with some taking as long as two months.
For the Uniondale exhibit, Eva arranged pieces partly by color while working around the space in the library’s basement and meeting room.
Banham keeps guest books filled with visitors’ comments from his exhibitions. Some describe the artwork as “amazing” or “fascinating,” while others express surprise that the scenes are made from paper.
“Being a guy that’s over 100, still alive and involved in this type of business, it’s great,” he said. “People who visit the libraries left their remarks, and they’re all pleasant and wonderful. I’m flattered by their words and how much they care for me.”
