"For The Love of Play" is a series of work created for my senior year AP Art concentration.
The series embraces adults who still have a fond love for toys and asks the question "Why?".
Being a toy collector is embracing the little things that make life all the more better, and now that toy collecting is becoming more mainstream than ever; there is no better time to showcase to the world the shear amount of joy it brings to me and many others.
"Let's Grow Down"
- Fisher Price
"Leg Godt"
Inspired by my early love for Lego. Lego was a way for my dad and I to bond, it introduced me to building at an early age.
To anyone who is unaware of this ever growing community of teenagers and adults who still have a passion for toys; well, toys (particularly action figures) became is big deal in the 1980s, and nowadays the kids who fell in love with them then, are still just as much in love with them now. Toys are embraced by collectors for their charm and artistic style.
Because every collector is different, there is no one answer to why they held onto their love for toys.
"A Very Funko Christmas"
"Crashing Through The Cretaceous"
"Introducing Swap Force"
I really delved into my own experience as a toy collector to discover an answer to this question. I, myself, have always been drawn to action figures for their complex sculpts and mechanical design. Not many people stop to realize just how much design work goes into a toy.
I remember feeling embarrassed to walk into the "boys" toys section of the store to look for cooler toys. Toys are a work of art in their own respect, and I definitely embraced that growing up.
Today I fulfill the childhood fantasies I never lived while being a kid. I buy every action figure I want, I pose them, play with them, take photos of them, and customize them. Growing up as a girl, I played with "boys" toys, but was never fully indulged into it.
"That's the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up"
-Walt Disney
"Plastic Crack"
"2016 in one word: amiibo"
"Life in The Fast Lane"
Toys are simply cool. Every adult, even the ones who do not collect toys can point out at least 5 things in the toy aisle they'd totally buy if they were still a kid. Toys bring us all back to a time that was much simpler, where our imaginations took us to outrageous new worlds, and our creativity spiraled out of control. Toys showed us representation of things we don't typically see in life; but by playing with others, we were able to bridge the gap between fantasy and the reality.
"College Life Lego Life"
Taken right from a photo of a friend, who's brother is in college, and his dresser is full of Lego
“Master Your Own Universe”
One of the most recent additions to the “For The Love of Play” collection!
"Life to The Lifeless"
Inspired by my toy photography, in which I am able to breathe life into the lifeless.
Being a kid is simply the ultimate joy. In fact, In the Chinese teaching of Daoism, the goal to being one with the way is to revert back to being a child. Because being a child is a state of innocence and malleability unlike anything you will experience again.
The Toy Selfie Shrine
