The Meeting

Rotofugi Designer Toy Store & Gallery, established in July 2004, is located on the border of Chicago's Lincoln Park and Lakeview neighborhoods in a beautiful vintage building. Since opening, Rotofugi has grown to become one of the world's premier sellers of designer toys from artists all over the world. Rotofugi features a diverse selection of vinyl figures, capsule toys, plush and more from both eastern and western designers. The adjoining Rotofugi Gallery features monthly art exhibits by a range of both local and nationally known artists. Beginning in late 2007 Rotofugi partnered with Chicago based product development specialist Squibbles Ink to begin producing artist-designed figures by the talented designers located in their home town. Click here for more information on Squibbles Ink + Rotofugi projects. Rotofugi is owned and operated by husband and wife duo Kirby and Whitney Kerr. You can find the couple in and around the store on most days. They love to talk about toys and art. Tara Krebs is a Canadian artist, currently working and residing in Toronto, Ontario where she earned her B.F.A at the Ontario College of Art and Design. Much of her inspiration comes from her love of animals and nature and an interest in curiosities of the world, past and present. Tara was raised in a small suburb of Toronto called Thornhill, where she spent much of her youth locked inside her imagination to avoid the harsh cold climate of the long Canadian winter. In these works, Tara draws from her childhood memories of impossible worlds made tangible by her imagination and connectedness to nature. The ripped-from-a-storybook quality to these pieces, along with their vague titles and lack of narrative text allow only a brief glimpse or scene of a story, requiring the viewer’s imagination to fill in the blanks, much in the way that the artist’s own memories of childhood reach out to her through briefly illuminated fragments. While viewing these scenes, it is your responsibility to give life to these characters and the environments in which they dwell. Who are they? What are their roles? What brought them to this point in their story, and what comes next? Are the settings depicted Acrylic paint is fast drying paint containing pigment suspension in acrylic polymer emulsion. Acrylic paints can be diluted with water, but become water-resistant when dry. Depending on how much the paint is diluted (with water) or modified with acrylic gels, media, or pastes, the finished acrylic painting can resemble a watercolor or an oil painting, or have its own unique characteristics not attainable with other media.