miss koco

Imagine, upon meeting a beautiful stranger,
she asks you if you want to play with her nipples...

Fortunately, and perhaps unbelievably, she's serious
and it's okay for you to crack a smile.
After all, it's artist Nicole Dupree aka miss koco
and she's got her hands out-

full of crocheted nipples.
It's this light-hearted ice-breaker that miss koco uses to spread the word about Nipples for Breasts, an ongoing project created to start conversations about our bodies, play with art (and nipples), and raise money for great organizations that investigate environmental causes of breast cancer, educate the public, and fund programs that provide free mammograms for women in under served communities.

miss koco prefers to steer away from providing information that is fear based. Instead, her approach is joyful and slightly erotic, yet still informative. The nipples represent something positive: people laugh and smile. To miss koco, it's about charity and being proactive towards making changes she wants to see.

miss koco offers a variety of nipple designs including
crocheted pins, key chains, cell phone charms, pillows,
and my personal favorite and miss koco must-have
golden nipple clay magnets!

A portion of the proceeds from each nipple sold will benefit
Breast Cancer Fund and National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc.

miss koco's talent goes beyond just creating nipples and breasts. Self described as creatively fickle, miss koco has her hand in a number of on-going projects from art to film. There is no one medium she wants to work in; she wants to do it all! Although she is overflowing with ideas, there are undeniable commonalities that draw her to a project: the interactive aspect that's about making connections with people through art objects and making something from nothing.

Through her travels miss koco has visited communities where the locals use and re-use anything and everything to produce salable objects. In Northern Thailand, on the "walking street", miss koco noticed vendors using plastic candy bags with added string as gift bags and table cloths made from rice bags. No doubt this impacted and influenced her own work perspective.

miss koco has a habit of always collecting items fueled by her inability to get rid of sentimental clothing and objects. She says, "It feels like I'd be deleting pieces of my life and memory." From stamps to clothing to paper goods, these items always find a way back into her work. This is what gives much of miss koco's art pieces a story.

At the time of our meeting, miss koco was working on a red nipple in mid production comprised of different fabrics/textures from garments she acquired in other countries. A look of happiness came across her face when talking about the piece as if she was ready to pass on these pieces of her life to be loved and experienced by someone else.
miss koco also showed me cd jackets she handmade. Some years ago, a friend was intending to getting rid of wall posters that once hung in his room. miss koco saved the posters not knowing at the time exactly what she would do with the paper, but knowing that in some way, someday these paper goods could be re-used and not go to waste. Unknowingly, this friend is about to receive his once loved, yet no longer useful posters, as upcylcled cd jackets! In the simplest terms, upcycling is the practice of taking something that is disposable and transforming it into something of greater use and value, combined with the thoughtfulness of these little gifts, this is a win-win sitaution for miss koco's friend and the environment!

Similarly, in an attempt to "keep the spirit running" miss koco prefers to incorporate goods that originated from someone else's passion, love, and care. For example, she uses yarn from small family run companies like Koigu, where no two dye lots are the same having been impacted by the personality, mood, feelings, and thoughts of the Koigu artist/creator. When I asked what she liked to shop on etsy for she revealed that she liked to purchase handmade items from other sellers that she could in turn use herself (her latest purchases were hand embroidered note cards).

For now, miss koco is working on coming into her own and accepting herself as an artist. Her goals are to make polished and well constructed art pieces of high quality.
Clearly, this is just a taste of what miss koco has in store for the future. She already has a diagrammed plan for a nipple tent and nipple rug! To find out more and keep abreast on her latest projects please visit misskoco.com and her etsy shop!