Aug

Yarn Bombing Has Its Purls of Wisdom

by Janine Boylan on August 19, 2013

Yarn bombing turns the Andy Warhol Bridge, Pittsburg, into creative public art. Image © Knit the Bridge

The Andy Warhol Bridge
© Knit the Bridge

Street Knitting As Public Art

The Andy Warhol/7th Street Bridge in Pittsburgh has been bombed!

So has the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles.

And so have numerous trees, statues, railings, phone booths, bicycle racks, and lampposts.

Yarn bombing, or yarn graffiti, is often the work of stealth knitters who wish to beautify a public place with their artistic expression. This soft form of graffiti has become more mainstream in the last few years, though, and more communities are embracing it as public art.

Meet three creative yarn bombers.

Jessie Hemmons, The Street Bomber

Ishknits, or Jessie Hemmons, is a self-described yarn bomber who started her work in Pennsylvania and has recently brought it with her in her move to northern California.

Jessie Hemmons shows a unique artistic expression---yarn bombing to create public art. Image © Dustin Campbell

Jessie Hemmons, installing her work
Image © Dustin Campbell

Hemmons learned to crochet as a teen. A rough childhood led her to a juvenile detention facility where she had difficulty fitting in.

Eventually, she found crochet hooks and, through some relentless begging, got other girls to teach her the craft.

She explains how this experience became an Oh, I see moment for her, learning that “knitting and crocheting can be used as a language; a way to connect with people when other methods aren’t as effective.”

What motivates her? Hemmons shares more insights:

I have always loved graffiti and street art. I love the concept and the rebelliousness of it.
Street art resonates with me the most because I have always had this angst and a need to assert my belief that art should be accessible.
I have always struggled with accepting my place in society as a female. . . . I want to use a mockingly feminine craft to assert myself as a female figure in the world of street art.

This video shows Hemmons making and installing a piece in Pittsburgh.

If the video does not display, watch it here.

Yarn bombing of a Mayor Rizzo statue creates unusual public art. Image © Conrad Benner/Streetsdept

Mayor Rizzo, bombed
Image © Conrad Benner/Streetsdept

Knit the Bridge, Community Artists in Pennsylvania

Knitting can be a bridge to communication between people. Or knitting can just cover a bridge.

The Knit the Bridge group depended entirely on local communities’ support to accomplish their knitting project: a huge display and glorification of yarn work wrapping the Andy Warhol/7th Street Bridge, pictured at the top of the post.

Unlike traditional yarn bombers, the group sought permission to do their display. And they have a set time on September 6, 2013, when they will remove it. Oh, I (wish I could) see it!

Knit panels for yarn bombing the Andy Warhol bridge in a Pittsburg public art project. Image © Jay Ressler

Panels ready for hanging on the bridge
Image © Jay Ressler

Some number facts:

14 months was spent planning, fundraising, knitting, and crocheting
1,847 participants signed up to help
580 hand-knit 3″ x 6″ panels line the walkway of the bridge
3,000 linear feet of knitting covers the bridge towers
337 volunteers installed the panels on the bridge in two 15-hour days

After the exhibit, the group will be cleaning and donating the one-of-a-kind blanket-sized panels to those in need.

Installing knit panels as part of a yarn bombing public art project on Pittsburg's Andy Warhol Bridge. Image © Knit the Bridge

Workers install panels at the top of the bridge.
© Knit the Bridge

YBLA—Yarn Bombing Los Angeles

This group had done a number of displays throughout the City of Angels, but they had a new, ambitious idea: cover the Craft and Folk Art Museum with crocheted squares, donated by volunteers. It sounded rather straightforward at first.

Artistic expression of yarn bombing at LA's Craft and Folk Art Museum in a creative public art project. Image © Yarn Bombing Los Angeles

Craft and Folk Art Museum, Granny-Squared
© Yarn Bombing Los Angeles

And then the squares started coming in. Over 500 people from 25 countries donated squares—15,000 hand-crafted squares in all!

The stories behind the squares are heart-tugging.

A neurologist in Turkey encouraged her patients to make squares as part of their treatment. It offered them a familiar, but creative outlet. And they relished being part of a public art project!
13 squares arrived from Iran, but not by mail, since it is not possible to exchange mail between Iran and the U.S. Instead, the squares were transferred from traveler to traveler to reach L.A.
Instructors at the Braille Institute in Los Angeles held the hands of their visually-impaired students as they crafted their first-ever crochet squares for the project.

Incoming mail, containing knitted squares for a yarn bombing public art project at LA's Craft and Folk Art Museum. Image © Yarn Bombing Los Angeles

Incoming mail brings knitted squares from around the world
© Yarn Bombing Los Angeles

After fundraising, hiring engineers, processing city permits, and even fire-proofing the yarn squares, YBLA stitched their museum cozy together and unveiled their work. It will remain up until September 14, 2013.

But they won’t stop there. The group will sew the extra donated squares into blankets for people who need them on Skid Row. YBLA also plans to work with the Skid Row residents to create products for their store.

The Knits and Purls of It

Yarn bombing is a colorful, non-damaging form of artistic expression. It adds to a community’s public art. But the real purl of wisdom is how well this hand-crafted art pulls people, a community, and even the world, together.

Front Street in Pittsburg where a yarn bomber' Jessie Hemmon's showing artistic expression becomes public art. Image © Damon Landry/damonabnormal

Front Street, Pittsburgh, by Jessie Hemmons
Image © Damon Landry/damonabnormal

To watch a longer video about Jessie Hemmon’s work, click here.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Janine Boylan Comments

The World's Art & Design/USA

Aug

Art Goes Across Cultures in “Tribute to Mandela”

by Sheron Long on August 15, 2013

How is it that a Belgian emerging artist, working with Chinese seals, honors South African activist and former President Nelson Mandela with a monumental portrait in the streets of Shanghai?

The inspiration that comes from going across cultures is, at least, part of the answer. In this video, seal artist Phil Akashi, shows his creative process.

If the video does not play, watch it here.

Mandela, An International Hero

Nelson Mandela (1918– ) celebrated his 95th birthday on July 18, 2013.

Nelson Mandela, subject of Phil Akashi's "Tribute to Mandela," a portrait created with Chinese seals and illustrating the art of going across cultures

Nelson Mandela, 2008
© South Africa The Good News

His vision of equal rights for the citizens of South Africa led to resistance against apartheid policies and to his imprisonment for 27 years.

After his 1990 release, he and President FW de Klerk negotiated an end to apartheid for which they won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

At age 77, Mandela voted for the first time in the 1994 elections, in which he became South Africa’s first democratically elected President.

Sheron Long 2 Comments

China/Crossing Cultures/South Africa/The World's Art & Design

Jul

Touched by Judith Braun’s Finger Drawings

by Janine Boylan on July 29, 2013

Judith Braun showing the creative process of finger drawing

A fingering in progress
© Cesar Delgado Wixan

The Creative Process Behind Braun’s Abstract Symmetry

To put it simply, Judith Braun finger paints.

But her work deserves a much clearer explanation.

Judith Braun finger draws.

And she uses her whole body as she draws. She dips her fingers in ground graphite and reaches to strategically smudge perfect black marks that fade to gray. She nimbly dips and smudges until a blank space is transformed with meaningful symmetrical shapes.

Wiggling the graphite-covered middle digit on her right hand, Braun describes her creative process as she discusses her mural “Graphite”: “This piece is using this finger, obviously. It’s a very specific finger!”

She wiggles her left hand and continues, “I can switch to this hand if I’m on an abrasive wall if I needed to, but I’ll still go to that finger. They’re not just random. Every finger is really different and very specific. The pressure is very specific.”

Watch as she sweeps pattern and shadow onto a wall to create her mural “Diamond Dust” at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia.

If the video does not display, watch it here.

The Rules

Sixty-six-year-old Braun is a life-long artist. As Judith Weinperson, she had a blossoming art career with edgy pieces that were featured in prominent New York exhibits. Then a series of life events, including a divorce, temporarily nudged her from the art scene.

In 2003, she realized she needed to switch her focus back to where she belonged: art.

Braun shares how big that decision was. “My one priority would be to make art and show it. That was the goal, to show one more time. This may sound simple, but at 56 years old it was a huge challenge for me to try to re-enter the ever-youthful art world. To start with, I had to make a whole new body of work, but I’d also have to make all new friends!”

And during her reacquaintance with the art world, she established three rules for her new body of work:

graphite or charcoal
abstraction
symmetry.

“With these simple rules,” Braun explains, “there are endless possibilities, and therefore endless, endless surprises.”

finger drawing by Judith Braun, showing her creative process

Carbon

Why the carbon-based medium? Braun clarifies, “I like the black and white. I like the fact that it is just black and white, and yet there are infinite possibilities. . .”

She also appreciates the carbon structure, which, under the right conditions can become a diamond. So she refers to the black powder as “diamond dust.”

As she illustrates in this video, Braun grinds graphite in a coffee grinder and then uses the fine powder as her “paint.”

finger drawing showing Judith Braun's creative process

Fingering #10
Drawn on wall with fingers dipped in charcoal, 10′ x 12′, 2012
“Pressing Matter,” 3 person show at Parallel Art Space, NYC
© Judith Braun

Symmetry and Abstraction

Braun explains her interest in symmetry: “Symmetry is the most ubiquitous form in the universe.” She continues, “When I put abstraction and symmetry together they offered a way to tap into this underlying function of the universe. Random possibilities become probabilities, carefully realized drawings. There is no end to the possibilities to choose from.”

Graphite finger drawing by Judith Braun showing her creative process

Graphite
Drawn with fingers dipped in graphite and charcoal on two walls 20′ x 17′ each,
December 9, 2012–June 2, 2013
Indianapolis Museum of Art
© Judith Braun

The Woman Behind the Carbon

In 2010, Braun made a video to celebrate her birthday. In it she explains, “This past year I was on the reality TV show, ‘Work of Art.’ I, of course, was cast as the older artist, which I knew, expected.”

Braun continues, “I didn’t know I was being cast as the crazy, older woman. So I am crazy and older. Actually I find them both to be quite honorable identities.”

You can watch the video she submitted to audition for the show here.

A More Serious Side

In 2012, during preparations for the “Graphite” mural, Braun learned she had breast cancer.

Her symmetrical, abstract art requires careful planning. Following her normal creative process, Braun had created meticulous guidelines for this mural by getting photos of the space and working through the piece, detail by detail.

The shocking news inspired her to abandon her prepared plans.

“I kept thinking some day I’ll do one where I don’t plan it. This is the time,” Braun shares. “I find out I have cancer. That wasn’t planned. So I thought, ‘Let me just go for it this time.'”

finger drawing showing creative process of Judith Braun

After completing the mural, Braun returned home for a double mastectomy. But first, in typical Braun style, she invited friends to a goodbye party for her breasts.

Oh, I See

Judith Braun’s creative process, one that uses just her fingers to turn black dust into detailed landscapes and geometric forms full of movement, is impressive.

But, behind that art, Oh, I see a woman with a rock-hard confident individuality and laser-clear direction, garnished with a colorful, twinkling humor. I am inspired!

And Judith Braun has obviously benefitted from her “Oh, I see” moments along the way. She says:

“There’s a lot of suffering in the world. I understand that. I’m suffering, but you get to that point—it’s a philosophical thing—you choose to celebrate and be thankful for what you have in the universe. That’s the way it is. You have to look at what is working.”

You can view and buy Braun’s work on her Web site.

And click here for a virtual showing of her solo exhibition at Joe Sheftel Gallery in New York.

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