Artist recreates Mona Lisa out of office supplies

Sticky art

Ottumwa, Iowa — Shay Hovell has single-handedly reproduced the most famous painting in the world: The Mona Lisa.

But, this one is a little different; it's made out of sticky notes.

"I put it together on individual poster board sheets and then what you're seeing behind me is all of those poster board sheets put together," artist Shay Hovell said.

So, how many sticky notes does it take to create this 9' by 9' portrait? 12,000.

"It took about 40 hours. I'd usually as I woke up in the morning as I was having my coffee would work on it then," Hovell said.

Even though it's not the original, Hovell's Mona Lisa is gaining popularity around the world.

"Part of the contest is after you get the entry done, you had to submit the video up. So I put it onto my page on YouTube, and then from there is when people started seeing it, embedding it into their MySpace page and then it just kind of starting flying around the world," he said.

About 14,500 people have seen the video from as far away as Switzerland and New Zealand.

After the success of this project, Hovell plans to create another masterpiece next year, but this time, without the sticky notes.

"I'm thinking maybe jellybeans, crayons, something that's multicolored," he said.

Currently in Topeka, KS

KTKA

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