I found out about the Gallery Hanahou show, “Luv-able and Hug-able”, last Friday via Craft. The holiday show is themed “Medium and Mini!: toys that are either just the right size for hugging or small enough to fit in your pocket, swing from a keychain, or be worn on a pin”.

These nursery-rhyme-themed “minis” are my submission. Please meet Humpty Dumpty, Mrs. Pumpkin-Eater and Wee Willy Winky. They are my smallest amigurumi to date.

Submissions are due July 20. More info at Craft.

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Today is the day! I am super-excited. This is the first show I’ve participated in, and frankly I’m over the moon. Tobiah‘s pictures from the gallery are up on Flickr. Her work is a study in contrast; the softness of needle felting and the feral strength of teeth. Wow. Reminds me of Joseph Beuys in spirit, one of my favorite conceptual artists. Thank you, Tobiah (and Art Whino), for putting together this amazing show.

Anyway, it’s particularly thrilling to see the monkey sharing a wall with other wonderful plush artists. My only regret is not being there tonight for the opening.

Congratulations to all the artists. Cheers!

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Opening reception on July 11, 2009 from 6:00 PM to Midnight at Art Whino Gallery 173 Waterfront St., National Harbor, MD 20745. There will be food, drinks and a DJ.

Now to box him up and send him on his way. Mr. Monkey goes to Washington!

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I started playing with the idea of working up a two-dimensional sketch in a three-dimensional medium. My sister mentioned Yoshitomo Nara, an artist we’ve both admired for some time. I started to think about Nara, Murakami and Superflat. I was feeling challenged by portraying emotion but retaining a stereotypical amigurumi object. I wanted to see if I could bring the “true emotion” of the call for submissions to the kawaii aesthetic.

I took the expression for the face from San-x and Sanrio objects and packaging, as well as from ASCII emoticons, specifically X) (an emoticon denoting squinting eyes or benign pain/confusion). I wanted the yellow starburst to suggest comics and anime along with the popping heart. I added the black outline to play with the idea of 2d/3d space, again referencing comics/anime.

I decided not to submit the piece in the end because I’m not sure it’s entirely successful at conveying emotion in the way that the other submissions in the Mortal Plush Flickr pool do.

I’d love feedback/comments.

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I found out about this show rather late and have been totally grinding on my submission for the past two weeks. The exhibit will feature plush works in any medium (crochet, felt, etc.) that convey emotion. I worked up an object, but didn’t like the execution of my first idea. It just wasn’t “emotional” in the way that I wanted it to be.

After going back to my sketchbook in search of inspiration, I decided to work up one of my older sketches of a pirate monkey. He was just a doodle that I ended up really liking. He’s just sort of “kawaii” in the sketch, but I felt like I could make him fairly expressive in yarn. After I finished him, I reviewed the list of emotions on Wikipedia and finally settled on “Weltschmerz“. I had been thinking of something like “resignation”, but I think weltschmerz is more precise.

I like the way that he turned out, but the project took a loooong time. I tried to work out a bunch of problems that really got me sidetracked. The jogless stripes exercise was futile. I tried joined rounds and the Noisy Pitta method. Both worked to some degree, but with the high contrast between the navy and white, the transition was still detectable. In the interest of time, I ended up abandoning the quest and just embracing the jog with spiral rounds.

I also spent a lot of time designing. I wasn’t working off of a pattern and probably should have spent more time writing down what I was doing. Eyeballing symmetrical parts like arms, legs and the contrasting face area wasn’t as easy as I had assumed it would be.

The highlight of the project was definitely the parrot. I had the idea at the very end (yesterday; deadline day!) and worked him up after watching a pirate episode of Wow Wow Wubbzy! with my son. I’ve always liked amigurumis that have a larger figure and a smaller figure together. I’ve seen several Japanese designs of a bear or bunny holding a hand puppet of a smaller animal. It seems like the two animals together magnify each other’s cuteness.

Most of all, I’m glad that the pirate monkey is done. I submitted the photos last night and will look forward to hearing back one way or the other. The Flickr group has had a lot of very cool submissions. It should be a great show.

Btw, the name of the piece is “Bronzebeard.” Yes, this is a WoW reference, but I play Horde.

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