Coach’s Spring 2015 collection is a journey across America that combines the sub-cultures of music, skate and surf. The outfits and accessories feature original drawings by Californian artist and animator Gary Baseman, which introduces a series of darkly playful creatures, each developed with a story of the Coach girl in mind. The art might look familiar, but there’s a lot more about Baseman under that veneer. Here are some fun things you didn’t know:
1 He coined the term “Pervasive Art” , as an alternative to lowbrow art.
2 He is the fourth child of holocaust survivors from Ukraine
3 He once described his art as a mix of “Hieronymous Bosch, mixed with Day of the Dead, mixed with my Eastern European roots, mixed with a certain sensibility of cute Japanese pop art, mixed with my love of Americana.”
4 He consider as his contemporaries Mark Ryden, J. Otto Siebold, William Joyce, Yoshitomo Nara, Benedict Taschen, Haruki Murakami and Ian Faulkner.
5 He reckons The Simpsons the best ever written TV show.
6 He has a formula for success:
S = HW x P x DL/BD x ND
(Where S = Success, HW = Hard Work, P = Persistence, DL = Dumb Luck, BS = Bull Sh*t, ND = Natural Disasters.)
7 Paul Frank’s Julius character was inspired by Baseman’s work.