MT: This bust is crazy, looking at it you can't really tell it was once a Think-UP! A well executed custom! What is the idea behind this piece?
The basic idea for the "Dr. J (pediatrician)" custom comes from the Miscreation Autopsy Babies and thinking about what a fictional frankentype would look like who sliced and diced babies so he could stitch and staple them into zombiesque creatures more gruesome than himself. In keeping with the franken theme, I used someone's real dentures that I purchased on ebay for the teeth. Very creepy working them, I must say. I also thought the good Doctor would have an exposed brain as a result of some back alley operation gone bad, which could help explain his maniacal obsessions. You know, the regular 1950's "Witches Cauldron" comics stuff we all love so much.
MT: Can you please describe some of your career in art?
I dont think I had much of a choice. In grade school and high school I couldn't bring myself to study anything I wasn't deeply interested in. I was always interested in drawing and painting those things in "my world" which often involved some aspect of nature, animals, especially insects, volcanoes, outer space ( planets, rocket ships, alien creatures), American Indians, the Universal Studios monsters (Frankenstein, the Wolfman, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dracula). I was definitely NOT interested in math ( algebra, calculus, geometry), chemistry, history ( other than the native americans who lived in up state NY, whose stone tools and arrowheads I dug for regularly ), and downright hated spelling, grammar, and reading ( with the exception of comics like The Witches cauldron, Mad, EC comics, etc. ). Un-diagnosed dyslexia helped to make most of my "school" experience a nightmare. I failed everything except the art classes, which I aced, this made no sense at all to me, but I knew for sure the one place where I was comfortable was inside my own head. Pretty much a loner from the get go, I hung with the other rejects and outlaws, a few of whom were also interested in drawing and painting. I was 20 by the time met an old outlaw friend who had reinvented himself during his first year in college. He turned me on to reading and classical music that summer and the remote possibility that I might also try this college thing. I was accepted for a probationary period of the first quarter of freshman year art school, solely on the basis of my portfolio of drawing and painting. I fell in love with learning at what seemed like for me the last possible opportunity.
Some six years later, I found I had myself somehow been reinvented and left the cloistered world of University life to open my own art gallery for the summer in a coastal resort town. By that Fall I had "broke even" for the the summer, the operative part of the expression being "broke". So when I got the phone call from the College where this all started with an offer of a teaching position, I was back in the comfort of that cloistered world of the University. I spent another five years on this side of the education fence falling in love with teaching and painting in my studio for gallery shows. In, I guess what would be chapter three, I left the University life for good, to embark on a new career as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator to replace the teaching salary and continue my own work by painting evenings and weekends in my studio. After a slow start for the first few years my illustration / design studio took off from being only local clients to national and then International, some of this work can be seen on this website. All the while I was still working on my own stuff in painting and exhibiting nationally. (In Chapter four) After too many years of creating the images for other peoples ideas I quit the freelance thing in 2003 to concentrate on doing my own work. That work now is an on going series of assemblages I call "Shrines" which can be seen on my website bobconge.com In 2004 I founded Plaseebo Custom and have been producing limited edition vinyl figures and customs since then. The two principals that have driven my career are: (1) "FOLLOW YOUR BLISS" (Joseph Campbell) and (2) "RE-INVENT YOURSELF EVERY 10 YEARS" (Bob)
MT: How did you get on the path to making toys?
I am a collector, and have always been as far as I can recall. I remember, as a young boy, my most prized possession being a small box in which I kept colorful or uniquely shaped stones, butterfly wings, bird's feet, dried flowers, a skull I had carved from wood, a small red plastic A-Bomb, and a wave-washed piece of deep blue glass. This first collection was a micro cosmos of my world at that time. As for toys, I have been a compulsive collector of various model kits and Japanese vinyl and many other toys for years, beginning when I was in collage, I took out a student loan that I really did not need and went knocking on doors asking folks if they had any old toys the attic they would like to sell. It was a gold mine, all sorts of early American cast iron horse drawn fire wagons, pre-war wind up German tin litho vehicles, and on and on. Then moved on to MIP action figures, vintage Japanese tin robots and space toys and in the 1980's vintage Japanese vinyl kaiju. When the NEW vinyl Art Toy thing started a few years ago enabling individual designers to build unique customs and produce limited quantity runs in China I was all over it and in 2004 I founded Plaseebo Custom.
MT: How would you describe your unique style of artwork on toys?
I prefer to work with non platform stuff. Various bits and pieces of broken or discarded figures, dolls, dentures, skulls, etc., stuff that has been abandoned or found at flea markets. So my customs are kinda Frankenstein-like, in that they are cobbled together of unrelated parts in a process which breathes a new life into them. My approach to building customs is an outgrowth of a series of assemblages or "Shrines" I have been building over the past 5 years for exhibition. You can see some of these at www.bobconge.com. However, over the past year, I have started building and sculpting my customs from scratch more and more. But I have a love affair with the past-over and discarded that compels me to pick up the unnoticed to use in my work. I like my figures to be edgy, quirky, punkish, darkish, more like Franz Kafka than Walt Disney. You see a lot of “cute” figures being done and I want my work to be deeper, heavier, hit ya in the gut rather than all sweetness. So the MONSTER theme is king with me, hence, the Plassebo Custom tag line "GREAT AMERICAN KAIJU".
MT: Were you ever abducted by aliens?
Of course.
MT: In a day, how much time do you think you spend on toys whether its designing, customizing, or retailing?
Full time for the past 2 years now, eight plus hours a day 7 days a week. I *love it !* (most of the time..)
MT: The work you put into the bust is very intricate, do you have any hints, DOs, or DONTs you would like to share with someone who is new to customizing?
The first step is always the idea which is then expressed in a quick sketch or two. Once you have the idea or concept for a piece dont be afraid to start just because you dont think you know how you are going to build it. I almost always figure it out along the way, without an overall plan. Usually the part you have completed will suggest how to make the next step.
MT: Please tell me about your Sum art-toy line, what inspired it?
The SUM figure is inspired by the general mentality of many of the indigenous folks who live in the area of my home. I wanted to write a story and create a related figure that would express my feelings about the lack of respect for the land and animals of these so called stewards of the land ( farmers ). The story and the figure relate a tale with a moral, one of "Environmental Karma"
MT: What is the Night Gamer?
I'm not telling, Read the story.
MT: ..Doh!
MT: Are you open to invites for custom art toy shows/ events?
Oh yes. Contact bob [at] plaseebo.net
MT: Is this bust for sale? Do you do commission work/ special requests?
The bust is not for sale at this time. Yes, I will consider commission work/ special requests.
Learn more about Bob Conge and his amazing creations at the Plaseebo Custom website
