I almost forgot to post about this mask I made for the San Francisco Plush You! venue, double punch. And what better day to post a mask than All Hallow’s Eve? See more in this Flickr set, including in-progress shots.

Now go eat some candy!

It’s that time of year again: the fourth annual Plush You! show at Schmancy in Seattle opens Friday October 10! The opening runs from 5-9pm and will be up for a month. BONUS: This year, there will also be a San Francisco venue as well! WOW! I have sent different work for each place, but the work I did for Seattle is up on my Flickr page.

I have not stayed in the habit of regularly making plush toys out-of-season, but every time Plush You! rolls around, I have a great time playing with my big boxes of random felt and fabrics that I have collected. I use it as an opportunity to try out an idea, or as an outlet for something that has been on my mind. This year, I wanted to make wearable things, so I created a set of three Cryptid Crowns: Nessie, Sasquatch, and Yeti.

I also designed some labels for the crowns. I think I almost have as much fun designing and making the labels as I do making the actual plushies!

P.S. I just posted a set of haikus to the blog of Adam Rex, children’s author and illustrator extraordinaire. The poems I wrote seem to have a familiar theme…

The grates on the street are air vents for the subway tunnels. Whenever a train goes by, the pressure wave of air in front of the train shoots up through the grates and inflates the sculpture. It’s a brilliant and creative use of otherwise lost energy. I wish I had thought of it! (of course, the Twin Cities don’t have subways, so…)

Come with me on a voyage through time. It is now one week ago: October 12th, 2007. You are getting ready to go out, and you happen to live in Seattle. You think, “Hey, I want to see some awesome, fun plush art tonight!” I am here to help you find what you seek: the 2007 Plush You! show at Schmancy (and its neighbors) is the third year it has been organized by the intrepid Kristen Rask. This year, the show is buoyed by the release of the book based on last year’s show, Plush You!: Lovable Misfit Toys to Sew and Stuff. It open(s/ed) October 12th and runs through the beginning of next month. Get out and see it!

My contribution this year is from a time long ago, when man and mammoth roamed the earth together. Otto and Orville are a mammoth rancher who do some experimenting to create… MammothMammoth! This year, the tags I made for the beasties were actually a micro-comic, just 8 pages long.

In other past news, traveling further into the past all the way to an October 8th release, I contributed to the 4th round of SpeakerDogs, organized by Ben the Illustrator. Download, cut out, and create your very own Piggy Back Beast!

And don’t forget to go all the way back to Labor Day weekend, and enjoy the collection of chickens, goats, and walking beef from the 2007 Minnesota State Fair. Sadly, no photos of the fried cheese curds. Mmmm, squeaky!

Okay, show’s over! Return to the present. LIVE IN THE NOW!

These are cute and horrifying at the same time. They are inside-out teddy bears photographed by Kent Rogowski. (via BoingBoing)

Which reminds me, I don’t think I’ve linked up the plush books I contributed to. Plush-o-Rama: Curious Creatures for Immature Adults came out last November, and Plush You!: Lovable Misfit Toys to Sew and Stuff will be out this coming November. I’ve contributed not just work, but also instructions for making your own plush critters in each book. Enjoy!

This Friday, October 13th, half of the MFA graduate students here at UNC are having an Open Studios night at the Hanes Art Center. It should be a fun night, and for many of you it will be the first time you get to see the new students’ work.

Also on Friday, Wootini is opening its Potluck show. The scheduled artist for October cancelled on the gallery, so they invited local artists they may not have worked with to bring in anything they had. I got a sneak peek the other day, and there is some cool stuff showing up. One woman sent in this wire sculpture that was stretched over with pig intestines. It’s actually quite beautiful!

Next month, my first solo show, Playground Rules, will also open at Wootini. I’m getting closer, one piece at a time, to feeling really excited about this show. I’ve got some family arriving for the opening, and more family showing up for Thanksgiving, so they can see the show in-person. I’m feeling the love.

And finally, at the end of November, a book I contributed to will be released. Ask for Plush-o-Rama in your local bookstore starting November 28th!

(and if you are in the Seattle area, don’t forget to go check out Plush You! at Schmancy Toys, up through the beginning of November)

It is on! A bunch of fabulous and crafty artists will unleash their creations on the Seattle public tonight at the second annual Plush You! show (a.k.a. Plush You II!) at Schmancy Toys.

I’m working on updates to the site over the next few days and weeks, so keep an eye out for new (old) work on the pictures side of things. It’s been a while since updated, so it will have to trickle in slowly…

I almost forgot to tell you! Tomorrow evening from 5:30-7pm is the opening of Oculomotor, the UNC Chapel Hill first-year MFA show. Nine of my closest art friends and I will be showing work from our first semester here at UNC. We are using the John and June Allcott Gallery and the Undergraduate Gallery on the first floor of Hanes Art Center.

I will be showing the animation I created at Duke last semester, an animation I created at home (digitally) over the winter break, and it will all be wrapped up in an installation of plush crows. (Pictures to come soon)

If you are local, please come by! The show will be up until Groundhog Day (February 2).

Directions to campus can be found here.

P.S. I got to design the postcards for the show!