Three LA artists came together on the 12th to discuss their pervasive art. Simone Legno, Gary Baseman, and Tim Biskup discussed how their works and how they got started. The term “pervasive art” describes art that is in everyday life – clothing, accessories, toys, etc. All three artists have vinyl toys, which have only recently been considered art.
The event took place at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. The museum was holding an exhibit called

I saw Cirque du Soleil: Corteo today. It was really amazing. A clown imagines his own death and subsequent funeral. A lot of it was really funny, but the amazing acrobatics stand out even more. There’s really no way I can put into words what I saw tonight except possibly “exceptional.”

On the 8th, Saturday, I went to a Simone Legno signing party in Los Angeles. Simone Legno is the artist behind tokidoki. I was nervous about not fitting in with the people there. It seems strange to be a man going to a signing of an artist primarily know for creating purses, yes? Of course, I was going with a girl, but it still seemed odd.
Actually, I really enjoyed the whole event, including standing in line and talking about tokidoki with other fans. I find that I know a lot more about the topic than I previously though. It was at a store called Mobius, which I should definitely link to if only for the fact that they tried to make loyal customers out of us, and I live too far to frequent it. The place was very cool. It had a nice, open feel to it and sold a variety of products, most of which were vinyl figures. In was cold out so they let us move the line inside where they also brought us various chips, fruit punch, green tea, and red wine.
The first attendees we met were a mom and daughter in a parking lot. I hate parking in Los Angeles. It’s always in some hard-to-use pay lot. We walked around together confused as to who or how to pay. Eventually some guy asked if we needed help in broken English. I wish I knew Korean. When we explained that we wanted to park there for a maximum of four hours, he kept telling us six o’clock. Turns out, parking is free until six, and before then you can’t pay ahead of time. Did I mention I hate parking in LA?
The woman we met had a poster she bought for her daughter, but she didn’t tell her daughter. The girl though it was just a big blank paper in a poster tube that her mom was going to get signed. She was in for a nice surprise. We also met some cool people behind us in line too. They apparently knew each other from previous signings.
I was ninth or tenth in line and got there an hour and a half early. It was a shorter line than I expected. While there, we collected fliers and the like. We also purchased a Mozzarella figure. Beforehand, in preparation and/or hype, we bought tokidoki stickers, as well as a new Guitar Hero guitar faceplate because gem wanted mine.
Anyways, gem went first. She got the faceplate autographed. She wanted Mozzarella drawn on it, holding a guitar instead of a gun, but Simone forgot and drew the gun in anyways. It was pretty awesome watching him do such skilled drawings so quickly, even if he forgot that detail. He made it up to her by drawing Adios on it as well, this time with the guitar. It’ll definitely look cool on a guitar! Before leaving, gem gave him a robot panda she made out of felt and “fluff” stuffing. I think he really liked it. He collects robot toys, and gem knew this.
I first asked him to sign the Mozzarella. He drew a Latte on the back of her in full color. It was an amazing drawing. After asking if I had anything else he wanted me to sign, I gave him a blank Labbit and asked if he’d put it in a cactus suit like many of his characters had. He laughed and said he’d try. Well, I don’t know if he thought he’d fail or something, because it looks gorgeous. What’s especially cool is that we now have a Simone Legno autographed / sketched Labbit and a Nightwish autographed Labbit.
Long story short, I always thought it art was pretty cool, but I appreciate it much more now. It’s also interesting that I never noticed just how urban-influenced his style is. It just made me realize how unique his art is in that it’s a combination of American urban style with Japanese animation. Next time he has a signing close to Irvine, I’ll go again.