We're All Mad Here

Tokidoki Cheshire
Originally uploaded by kardinalsin.

As Dollar Bill previously reported, a group of us made it out to Hollywood for a little gallery showing at 1988. This time, instead of painterly goodness in the form of Joe Ledbetter and Greg "Craola" Simkins, we were treated to a curated event of custom Cheshire Cat vinyls and paintings. Disney first got in the vinyl business with their somewhat popular Chicken Little figure, but they've really thrown their hat in with the cat, producing several variants and now going with a more artist-centric custom show than their previous "Chickinterpretation" at the El Capitan theater.

This time around instead of just exhibition, 1988 went for the gold and are auctioning off each of these little puppies for charity. Designed and customized by each artist, there were a few that struck me particularly. You could say that the $900 custom by Joe Ledbetter is a steep starting price, but you could also argue that it will go for much higher than that at auction given his popularity, but I was more impressed with the creativity displayed by some of the less popular artists, including Attaboy and Upso. No doubt, there were many brightly colored customs, but some, you might say, could have tried a bit harder than just recoloring the kitten's stripes.

These shows are always an inspiration to me. Having done a couple of custom dunnies myself, the learning curve is a bit high. What strikes me though, is how fun it is to create a three-dimensional character on such a canvas. While Dunnies themselves tend to have much more versatility in their form factor, I was impressed by how interpretive the artists were with the more restrictive shape of the Cheshire.

I was very tempted to pick up a blank one for future usage, but instead decided to practice my wares on a much less expensive Munny for the time being. Until I can master both that and the use of my acrylics, I'm just going to have to draw and dream.