ToyCyte: Toy Culture Collected

About amybean

amybean dropped by ToyCyte HQ last March, but she’s been a part of the Bay Area art scene for the last two decades. Her creative output ranges from the cozy to the crazy. Her career path has included plush, pyrotechnics, prototyping and lots of stuff in between. Those following today’s Throbblehead post, will be stoked to learn that the most recent concert amy attended was, in fact, Throbbling Gristle. amy’s latest endeavor is an homage to the elusive Skunk Ape with a series of intricately detailed hand-made plush dolls. I had the opportunity to chat about cryptids and eat caperberries with amy last week, and I learned a lot. I also got to check out the whole Skunk Ape gang in rare close-up, and they’re awesome. To borrow a phrase from the Skunk Ape’s “mythical” compatriot: the (Jersey) devil is in the details. You could get to know amybean in one of her myriad blogs (see below) and attempt to track down the cold trail of the Skunk Ape on your own. Or, you could win one of these spectacular 12-inch beasts right here when you enter…

The Contest

amybean likes to think that the Skunk Ape stays hidden “because of a highly evolved camouflage wardrobe, as well as other, more urban outfits that allow for perfectly anonymous blending in a crowd.” The first urban camo shoutout was to Florida, where the most famous Skunk Ape sighting occurred. To win an incredibly detailed 12-inch handmade plush Skunk Ape customized with your locale, tell us something mysterious about YOUR town or region in the COMMENTS SECTION below. amybean will pick the comment that makes her laugh out loudest, and the winner will get a Skunk Ape with that town or region’s name emblazoned on an official, limited edition Skunk Ape camo hoodie. Says amy, “Keep it clean, please, this is a family show!” Can’t wait to win? Commission a custom Skunk Ape from amy [at] amybean [dot] com. The Spa Robe Skunk Ape and Sweater Skunk Ape pictured above will also be available for purchase through the ToyCyte store.

Please post your hometown stories by May 24th at midnight PST. We will declare the winner on May 25th, shortly before the next custoMONDAY. The contest is open to anyone, anywhere in the world. If you have already won a custoMONDAY in 2009, please feel free to share your creativity, but you are, regrettably, not eligible for the prize.

The Interview

Since I was a Wax Trax! listening, RE/Search-reading east coast teenager, I knew all about Survival Research Laboratories. But give the rest of our readers a primer, and describe your involvement in the group.

SRL has been, and always will be, ground zero for large scale catastrophic machine performance art. I first stumbled into this magical world in the summer of 1990 and had my head, heart and guts handed back to me shrink wrapped with a greasy film of pink meats, brewers yeast, and a shredded carnet. I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a prop maker, a prop operator, machinist, machine operator, caterer, video salesperson, floor sweeper, people wrangler. I think the strictly volunteer crew has become a mushroom colony: many unique heads above, and connected underneath by something completely organic.

Which begs the question, how do you get from pyrotechnics to plush?

In 2001, I had to invoke a swift getaway within my so-called life, so, basically, I grabbed my sewing machines and a credit card, and blazed off into a classic CA sunset.

Our readers will know you from Cozy Robots. But you have had a history in toy design and prototyping. Tell us a bit about that.

The deeply cool part of prototype fabrication is the fact that I need to design and build the workspace plus some of the tools on the way to making the final “product” which is often itself a tool on the way to a more final product… it’s like working backstage on a backstage-themed show like Greg the Bunny, or Pirandello’s 6 Characters in Search of an Author. I have a professional history that doesn’t make a lot of sense on paper. My interest in toy making is driven by two simple things: character design, and the presence of some sort of mechanism.

BazaarBizarre outed you as having “more blogs than God.” Can you list them off for us? And how do you avoid cyber-schitzophrenia?

Avoiding cyber-Schizophrenia- whoah, is this thing on or off? Was I getting up or going to bed?

• http://cozyrampage.com is the main blog, and the title reflects my legal business name.
• http://cozyrobot.com is for cozy robot products.
• http://lucharobots.com is for lucha robot products. And misadventures.
• http://diybra.blogspot.com/ is for my bra making adventures, as I have been making my own for a few years now. It’s highly censored by me.
• http://theneedleblog.blogspot.com/ is a fantastic blog where hundreds of plush artists post whenever they want to. It’s run by the awesome Claire Chambers of Absolutely Small fame.
• http://tunaquest.blogspot.com/ helps me keep track of tuna salad sightings. I wish more tuna fans would post there. We could have maps and everything.
• http://www.hipsterbabyts.blogspot.com/ is where I used to sell my cryptid models turned into photos and then appliqued to onesies. Great gifts!
• http://amys-in-the-arts.blogspot.com/ is for an etsy street team where all members are named Amy.

[ED NOTE: I had to delete a few for space!]

Tell us about Skunk Apes and your interest in cryptids.

Cryptids are fascinating to me because of the endless debate of fact vs fiction. Conceptual artist Jill Miller turned me on to the research work of Loren Coleman a few years ago, and the stories and legends have intrigued me ever since. The regional variations within each tale offer much to think about when pondering any one of the fact or fiction scenarios. For example, folktales from all over the world describe a hairy man-beast who persists in eluding proper documentation. When I was first researching the Bigfoot tale, I became particularly interested in a version called the Skunk Ape, said to inhabit the southeast US, and known for its horrible smell. There are two photographs that have become the defining images through continued circulation. There’s something about the face that is a perfect balance of creepy and cute… here’s the back story on the photos: http://www.lorencoleman.com/myakka.html

I don’t always get the chance to bond on the same influences as artists I’m interviewing, so when I noticed a small pic of Bob Dobbs next to a Stooges poster in your work area, I had to indulge. Stream-of-consciousness list-away any and all random influences upon your work…

Noise, nostrils, nerds, seedlings, sociology, success, sex, love, friendship, memes, music, machines, pictures, food, free time, paid time off, opportunity, apes, automation, reading, drawing, cocktails, rain, sleep, the beach, medications, disease, dreams, sunshine…positivism.

What is the most recent toy you bought?

Most recent toy is a set of wearehappytoserveyou.com ceramic mugs. I lived in NYC for 10 years, so these bring me great joy.

You are always really nice. People are starting to freak out and get weird the worse the world gets. Here is a new custoMONDAY question I am debuting: Ask an artist for world advice. Please feel free to give one or more bits of personal, general or direct advice to make the world even an ounce better.

My mom used to always say to me “Be nice, there are enough shitty people in the world” So, uh, BE NICE! (hint: it’s way more fun!!)

What’s next for amybean?

Continuing my non-linear and anti-career choices to the best of my abilities! I’ll be dusting off older characters that have been waiting their turn for further development, sculpting and casting some things from my misplaced sketchbooks. Blogging. Twittering. Facebooking. All characters to be developed into (onto ?) bedsheets and pillowcases, lunch boxes and also some new form of theater. And of course, stickers and t-shirts!!!

Awesome. Now let’s see whose hood deserves a hoodie…Leave your comments below!