The artist Kinya Hanada, who works as Mumbleboy, was into trippy indie plush before trippy indie plush was cool. Which may or may not mean that papier mache is the next plush; for all its clean, simple, aesthetic pleasure, you can't really snuggle a papier mache dinosaur.
Still, they'd decorate the hell out of a nursery.
Surfing through his flickr set, Mumbleboy's handmade style brings a few things to mind: the folk art-inspired dolls of Alexander Girard; the op art animated patterns of early Sesame Street, such as the "Jazzy Spies"; Jim Flora's artwork, especially his first book, The Fabulous Firework Family, which is all about the creation of a towerful of painted paper figures; even the kyoudo gangu folk toys of Meiji-era Japan. [Now that I think about it, papier mache [hariko, in Japanese] is still popular for things like those rolypoly Daruma figures.]
Anyway, point is, Mumbleboy's got an exhibition right now, "Animal Hero Rescue," at Black Wagon, a cool-looking kids store in Portland. It runs for another couple of weeks, and it might be the only place to pick up some Mumbleboy figures before the holidays.
Mumbleboy site and flickr stream [mumbleboy.com]
"Animal Hero Rescue", 10/9-11/12 at Black Wagon [meta no tame
