Mickey Harrington

A plush art toy is a collectible, artist-designed soft sculpture that blends elements of fine art, character design, and traditional plush toy craftsmanship. Unlike mass-produced plush toys, these are often handmade or produced in limited editions, featuring unique designs, high-quality materials, and intricate detailing. Artists and independent designers create plush art toys to express their distinct styles, often incorporating surreal, cute, creepy, or abstract aesthetics. They can be purely decorative or interactive, with elements like movable limbs, embroidered details, or mixed-media embellishments. Many plush art toys are sold through galleries, designer toy conventions, or directly by artists, making them sought-after collectibles in the designer toy community. Steven Harrington lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. Aside from co-owning and operating National Forest Design, he still finds time to work on both commissioned and self-inspired art projects of his own. Influenced by images, fashion and graphics discovered in Time Life Encyclopedias from 1965-1972, thrift stores, and The Moody Blues, his art might be termed contextual objectivism. That is, he views each piece he creates as a tangible object that is part and parcel of a larger context; the object helps define the context and the context helps define the object. Whatever feel or meaning the observer takes away from the piece belongs to the observer. Nothing is shoved down his or her throat. Discovery is the key. Some of his most recent projects include a three board, custom-shaped signature series for Element Skateboards, contributions to the French clothing line Sixpack France, a collaboration with Nike SB, contributions to Arkitip Magazine, a special 3-d piece with Kidrobot and a series of silkscreen prints based on the idea of “connectivity.” He has exhibited work in Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Berlin, Milan, Barcelona, Tokyo, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Montreal, Melbourne and Dallas.