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It's sort of a Pokemon, tarted up like a Salvador Dali Easter egg, and simultaneously on display at both your local comic book shop and at The MoMa. Such is the typical fumbling for words in trying to answer the question: WTF is a Munny?

Lawrence artist Joel "Jouvelt" Feldt takes a whack at it:

"It's like a Barbie doll thing, but taken to graphic designers and fine art painters, and in that 'Juxtapoz' style of lowbrow contemporary."

Again, unless you see these demented Hummel figurines in person, it's difficult to wrap your mind around. The march of the Munny (pronounced MUH-nee) began with toy maker Kidrobot, a pop art and fashion outfit founded by designer Paul Budnitz in 2002. Kidrobot quickly built an empire by peddling limited edition dolls inspired by urban culture and general Asian weirdness. They were the toast of both nerds and curators alike.

No doubt the allure of the Munny is its customizability. Kidrobot provides a blank doll (for $25 via kidrobot.com or at Urban Outfitters), an artist puts their own spin on it, then Kidrobot cranks 'em out for retail.

It's not all industrialized mass production, however. Aspiring amateurs can get a blank Munny and go Frankenstein all over its ass. One-of-a-kind Munny collections, filled with do-it-yourself dolls as individual as any traditional painting or sculpture, are springing up around the world.

One such collection has sprung right here in Lawrence. Jouvelt, along with Lawrence artist Gabriel Dorsey, is organizing a meeting of the Munny known as "Munnys That Bring Happiness: 1 Toy. 100 Interpretations."

"What I really liked about these large collections of designer toys is that it's everybody's different vision of the same object," Dorsey says. "We know so many different artists in different fields-fine artists, tattoo artists, comic book artists, graphic artists, non-traditional mosaic artists-that we were able to bring in for this." They didn't just pull that number out of the paint huffing ether, either-there's a mini-army of over 100 Munny made by nearly 80 local artists that will be swarming the Lawrence Arts Center in the coming weeks.

"It was like wildfire how many people came out of the woodwork, from the Lawrence Art Guild to other collectives, to the whole community," marvels Jouvelt. "Doing it at the Arts Center is a nice neutral ground. They don't usually do youth-oriented stuff but have given us a chance."

Rick Mitchell, Gallery and Special Programs Director for the Lawrence Arts Center, is eager for this new direction. "I got involved because we did a show in the Spring involving artists under 30 years of age, and that got us involved with a number of artists in that age group," says Mitchell. "I'm very excited about it. It's different from anything we've ever done in the past."

"The only restriction the Lawrence Arts Center gave was no porno," adds Dorsey. "R-rated is fine, but no X."

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Valley of the Dolls

While there's no doll humping in the show, this Munny collection does run the gamut. "Some people make them very cute, some people make them very vicious," says Jouvelt. "I've been doing this series of paintings of female figures in bondage, so I made a simplified Munny where I just added hair, a stick, and bondage rope."

Rod Smith, the owner of skateboard shop White Chocolate who provided the dolls for the show (whom Dorsey affectionately calls "our shady dealer"), also made a go at Munny making. "I'm not an artist, but I was inspired by this idea of taking a blank figure and creating something with it-it's something that a kid could do," Smith says. "I had recently found-don't ask me why I save these things-three of my dreadlocks in a Ziplock baggie. I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to figure out which glue would work best to glue my hair to the Munny. Turns out it's crazy glue."

These unassuming and slightly creepy vinyl dolls have provided unlikely common ground for the Lawrence arts scene. "This will be cross-gender, cross-genre, and get people involved who aren't usually into these art crews or cliques," Jouvelt says. "They're all coming together for one thing, which for me was one of the coolest parts." »