Yarnbombing – The Oakland Museum Part 3

” Yarnbombing ! Yarnbombing ! ” someone was yelling on the street I didn’t pay to much attention to this because someone in my head is always yelling YARNBOMBING!

We were installing our yarnbombing in the Jensen Installation at the Oakland Museum. The Jensen Installation is an array of brilliant white metal chairs and tables that can be arranged into groups or hung up on a huge floor to ceiling black board by the people who come through the Oakland Museum . You can write on the black board too , so the whole thing is fun to play with and interact with and I wanted to interact with it by yarnbombing it. We had laboriously knit 2 slipcovers for 2 chairs , a red one and a blue one . The blue one was knit in 3 strips by three knitters. I had like the idea of the knitting being in primary colors since the chairs were icy white.

Slipcovers are a ton of knitting > I had always wanted to make knitted slip covers but was too much knitting to get through . But I was able to do it because I had promised I would and made it a deadline . { This is my secret to producing extreme knitting }

So there we were sewing these big slip covers on at last And this yarnbombing shouting started up.

In walks a tall handsome man with his slightly shorter handsome young son. He had several strings of shell around his neck. This was Monte – a Miwak activist Native American who works for the city in the Public Works Department removing graffiti . And he knew every yarnbomb that I had up in the city of Oakland and it’s exact location and condition.

” Oh yes ! ” he said . ” We’ve had a lot of conversations about wether we should leave that yarnbombingup or not. But we’re lazy guys so if no one complains we just leave it up ! “

I was amazed . Some how I had thought that the police were in charge of yarnbombing violations  -  but no  – it is the public works department . And I was really seen as a graffiti artist by the people in charge of graffiti . I had always sort of felt like I was pretending to be a graffiti artist but apparently I had been one all along  . This was exciting news .

” Well now that I’ve met you I’ll make sure everyone leaves your yarnbombing up . ” said Monte. “  I’ll tell them it’s art ! ‘

I am happy to have those on power on my side.

a link from another blog about these chairs here

Yarnbombing The Oakland Museum Part 2

This installation started when I presented the idea of yarnbombing the inside of the Oakland  Museum to The Oakland Standard.

No really -  the idea started last year when The Russian and I were yarnbombing  the museums of California. We thought it would be interesting to put yarnbombing  on the street and in parking lots around museums  . People are there to see art anyway so we thought it would be a pleasurable sensation to see knitted art on the way in and out of the museum.

I always think it is  good to see knitted art any where , any time . The color and softness is relaxing and centering.

So during this period of yarnbombing museums I had gone over to The Oakland Museum of California and had measured  the various poles on Oak street at the entrance . I had gone in to the museum and had looked over the collection to find pieces that I wanted to reference in the yarnbombing.

As I go along making art I naturally want to make bigger and more ambitious installations. After I had yarnbombed several museums I wanted to yarnbomb the inside of a museum. Actually my idea was to yarnbomb the inside and the outside of a museum , to use the street as a gallery for many international yarnbombers and in addition to make a yarnbomb collaboratively with a bunch of knitters to go in the museum . So my idea had three parts.  This was the idea I presented to The Oakland Standard.

The day I gave my presentation I walked all around the museum and quickly decided to do the bannisters going into the museum, the bannisters going down into the museum , the bannisters going into the garden , 2 chairs , 2 benches and a tree .  I wanted the installation to be so big that you couldn’t dismiss it as just cute .

.These pictures are of the 8 bannisters going down into the garden.

The 8 bannisters are all this simple rectangular shape. I decided to knit them all in the same pattern of colors so that all 8 would connect as one piece. They look like they are walking – striding up the stairs of the garden.

The gardens at The Oakland Museum are free and  are a great place to feel cool and peaceful . I’ve noticed that children in the garden play vigorously with the knitting and it is always sliding down the legs of the bannisters . This looks pretty good I think -  although I do tidy them.

This whole yarnbombing installation is meant to be touched and everyone touches and rubs the knitting as they go by. I don ‘t know if they even notice that they are doing it but even if they don’t notice -  they are enjoying it.

We are all pretty lost in the little details of our lives . Art is always trying to surprise us into coming alive for a moment . Some artists use a shock in their art to disturb people awake. I’m taking objects that are very boring and unseen and making them jump out with bright knitting. Art is a great way to play.

Fun pictures of the installation at The Oakland Standard here

Yarnbombing on “Good Day Sacramento ” – Live TV

I have this funny sort of life where I am so busy yarnbombing that I seem to have no time to write about yarnbombing . Or really do anything else for that matter. We have been installing at The Oakland Museum Of California for three weeks and I want to tell you every detail about that – but I must take a pause in my glacial telling of that story to tell you of today’s thrilling adventure. We yarnbombed the station manager’s office on live TV on CBS “  Good Day Sacramento “.

I was sitting at home on Wednesday this week savoring that we had finally installed the tree , the garland and the bench at The Oakland Museum and that my hectic life of yarnbombing was finally going to slow down . No more frantic spinning and hounding my friends to knit ! I calmly checked my e-mails and there was a request to yarnbomb on live TV for ‘Good Day Sacramento ” Yarnbombing on live TV ! That sounded like something I’d like so I called Ashley and asked her when would she like this entire office to be yarnbomberd .

This Sunday . Nov. 13 . In 4 days .

huh.

“Well Ashley I said , knitting is a slow activity . We had 5 people knitting for 8 weeks to yarnbomb The Oakland Museum . Could we have a little more time ? “

“Well no “

I wanted to do this so I said  ” Yes -and could I bring a ukelele player and The Russian ? “

Yes that was great -it was now Thursday afternoon so I began thinking furiously -how to do this office and make it well bombed and beautiful.

I – cord .

I had been playing with knitting I- cord from my handspun and had used it to make a tree sash and a knitted flower garland . I have a tiny pink plastic knitting machine that you can hand crank and it knits i-cord . It is very time consuming but I like that and the knitted cord is cushy and big. I thought in 3 days I could make enough i-cord to wrap the table and chairs in this office . I began cranking.I don’t know what the term i – cord means .

So I cranked for 12 hours on Friday and it was not enough so I asked my friends to come and turn the crank and it still wasn’t enough so I bought 3 more cranks and it still wasn’t enough and I was giving myself a headache so I decided it was enough.

So this morning we drove over and picked up The Russian and drove up to Sacramento at 6 in the morning and The Russian knit i – cord as we drove . I wasn’t at all nervous about being on TV. ” Good Day Sacramento ” is very local and has lots of artists on it . I was mostly very eager to see how the wrapping would look. I like having ideas in my mind and then having the gamble of seeing if they will look good. The drive was beautiful , the moon was up , the rice fields were green and the trees were bright red . There were nets of small black birds spinning .

We got to CBS right at 7.30 and were greeted and sent to the green room . I tried not to eat the soap samples. After a few minutes we were taken to the bosses office . To my surprise the boss was still in his office. I contemplated yarnbombing him.

He didn’t seem like he wanted to be yarnbombed so we began yarnbombing the furniture . The boss left . It was tricky wrapping the i- cord around the curved shapes of the chairs . The Russian was wrapping beautifully and with total confidence. She is in art school that’s why . Josh began playing the ukelele .

The camera man arrived . He really like the ukelele playing . He began coaching Josh . I hoped that he would come to like yarnbombing. The anchor man came in and asked me lots of great questions . I started to relax. Then I realized we were not on the air. Then we went on the air and were very enthusiastic.

They set up a time lapse camera and went off to film the turkey weight lifting . We wrapped and wrapped.

We wrapped 3 chairs . I wrapped 2 handles . Josh played Christmas Carols . I began to sweat profusely . I’m not supposed to sweat . I began tearing off clothes and microphones. We started wrapping the table . We were down to the last little ball of i – cord.

‘Do you want to end with white ? ” The Russian asked .

‘Don’t you have a little more cord ? ” I asked . And yes she had cranked a tiny bit more in the car . We finished and it looked very cool. I was very hot .

The anchor came back in and we finished up. They took our microphones. I started taking pictures . Josh left . The stop motion camera kept filming .  I felt exhilarated .

But no ! The anchorman is back and they are giving me back my microphone and we are talking about this blog and The Oakland Museum yarnbombing . And Josh comes flying into third base and finishes the broadcast with a few bright ukelele chords.

As we packed up Josh said ” I learned an important lesson about being on live TV today “

“What’s that ? “

‘Never leave while the camera is still running “

 

You can see us yarnbombing very fast here. CBS Sacramento .

Yarnbombing The Oakland Museum of California – Day 1

” I’m done  ” said Brenda.

I looked over and there was the first bannister finished . We were yarnbombing out on Oak street in front of The Oakland Museum of California . There were 4 skinny 15  ft long metal bannisters to yarnbomb and we were now up one . I had been waiting a long time to see how the knitting would look. There it was – and it looked sparkling , thrilling ! I got little electric jolts when I looked at it – it was fresh and lush and musical. Oh boy .

When I first had the idea to yarnbomb The OMG the idea was extremely exciting in my mind . It took some time and negotiating with The Oakland Standard to get it all set up and time tends to calm our enthusiasm . It was fun to tell people that I had a commission to yarnbomb The Oakland Museum and that it was probably the first museum to ever be yarnbombed inside.

Then after the joy of the idea and the romance of bragging came the 2 months of full time spinning and knitting .

Fortunately I love knitting and spinning .

I think with art it’s best to first find something you adore doing  . Then second  figure out out to make something great with it .

So there I was -getting up every morning and spinning and plying on my spinning wheel all day . Taking breaks from spinning on my wheel  to spin on my spindle. When I had  12o colors spun up I would wind off big soft balls of yarn and give them to my friends to knit up .  This went on and on .  Every day life is very lulling  – I sort of forgot what we were doing this for .

Lots of my friends were knitting with me with great generosity . I have a pronounced tendency to drag people into my various projects with me whether it’s knitting , weaving , bodywork , kayaking or yarnbombing . If I think something is fun I’m convinced that everyone will think it’s fun too .

So the day came -today -  it was time to start the installation . I packed up my car like I was leaving town and going car camping for a couple of weeks. I filled up every suitcase I had with bags of knitting . I had no sense at all that we were actually going to yarnbomb the Oakland Museum .

I drove over to the museum and met The Fibrarian , The Russian , Brenda Loreman and Nancy . Every one sewed like crazy . I ran the crew . I had my portrait taken by Oakland magazine . That was pretty interesting . How do you take a picture of an anonymous person ?

Brenda said ” I’m done “

And I looked at the yarnbombing and I was  startled by delight.

And I realized that this was the point of the whole undertaking – yarnbombing is beautiful . It lifts the spirits and gives you one of those simple single timeless moments of pleasure .

I’ve come to believe that these moments are the best part of being alive.Come to the Opening Friday Night Nov 4 from 6 to 8 . There will be a knitting circle and yarnbombing more here

Yarnbombing And Little Gifts

‘It’s 100 degrees in Palm Springs “my brother told me . We were all going to Palm Springs for a family reunion and I was wondering about the temperature. 100 degrees ! That didn’t sound like a good temperature . That sounded like we were all going to fry like little eggs !

“Oh , it’s dry heat ‘my brother continued dryly.’You can sit in the pool . So – Are you going to yarnbomb while you are here ?”

‘Um , sure. I can bring something .” I said . Most of the tags I have are 15 ft skinny bannister covers for the Oakland Museum .

“Maybe you could yarnbomb the house itself !’

Hmm , that actually sounded fun and like a good little house warming gift for the owner . I had been seeing yarnbombing in Roche Bobois catalogues. I wanted to yarnbomb my own house but I always want more fame and glory than I can get for that .

We flew to Palm Springs and were driven to our vacation house . The house and pool and tennis court and 2 waterfalls and hot tub and 6 bathrooms were supreme. I had never seen a house with an outdoor kitchen . There were so many bedrooms that I could never find mine. The lighting was done by a Broadway theater lighting guy. I just stood around lighting things .  This house definitely needed a little yarnbomb.

I decided to yarnbomb one of the pool chairs. I wanted something pretty that you would notice -  but subtle , nothing very aggressive.

I thought it was a good little gift . Knitting is always about giving gifts to the people you love . Yarnbombing is also a gift – just to a wider and more unsuspecting audience . I like the idea of going to friend’s houses and sneaking off and yarnbombing their furniture.

This little vacation in Palm Springs was a gift.  To be with lots of people you love all at once -what could be more complete ? I try to remember that all of life is a gift to enjoy. I remember this about once a month .

And dry heat ? Great.

A little yarnbombing link here.

Yarnbombing And Change

Last weekend I went to a big wedding and saw some old friends that I hadn’t sen in a long time . This was good , they hadn’t heard of yarnbombing before so I could talk a lot about it . I look forward to this -my regular friends and my sweetheart are already hearing as much about yarnbombing as anyone could possibly stand .

So we were sitting at a table after dinner eating cake. We really had a lot of cake , the wedding cake had 3 layers -  carrot , chocolate with white frosting and red velvet . I think we had 3 pieces of each and Beverly had gotten me a glass of milk too . I was talking about the Oakland Museum of California installation. We have 7  bannisters  , 2 chairs and one bench knitted. We have one bench , 8 short bannisters and a tree to go. I’m also organizing a street show of International yarnbombers for the streets of Oakland – I have 6 pieces for that so far. { I know some of you know all this already and I am repeating myself -  but maybe some people don’t know yet !}

I was talking about imagining your biggest dreams -letting your imagination go as far as it could , make it really wild , really big . { I got this idea  from my writer friend N. } My big idea right now is to take big rolls of chain link fence and bead them and put them out on the street and in galleries.

My friends were listening nicely to this and Holtz said ” That’s great -I think about my great ideas but then I think that I would fail if I tried them !”

” Yes -I know what you mean -I think about it differently now . I think about my ideas and I think -

How would I need to change in order to be able to do that idea ?”

Everyone thought about that for a moment and then we took our cake and went outside and danced the last 2 wedding dances .

So we are looking at pictures of the knitting for the bannisters for the Oakland Museum installation. The Oakland Standard has put up a page about this installation here.

One of my yarnbombs was on  ABC News Good Morning America   last Thursday . This seems like it would be very exciting but it was kind of silly . And they mislabeled my yarnbomb as Domus , N. Y. instead of Streetcolor. Sorry Dad.   You can take a look here.

Yarnbombing And Beaded Fences

Why have male artists  often been more successful than female artists ?  I think one reason is that men can be more comfortable using many people’s energy for their ideas . Woman can fall into caretaking everyone in the group . This drains a woman’s energy  instead of building it . Men can sometimes drain the group for themselves . This makes for big projects and miserable groups. I know that it is possible for a group to build a strong , exciting energy that inspires everyone and doesn’t exploit anyone . I’m thinking about how to do this for my large streetart installations .

When I started yarnbombing I really didn’t want to have a crew . I wanted to make art that was about my own fun – not about how supportive could I be to everyone else .   I wanted to be known as Streetcolor ,  I wanted to get some anonymous fame . Later I joined with The Russian and I found working with a partner made me more daring  and got me to yarnbomb every week.  And  it was more fun to yarnbomb with someone .   If I could resist thinking I had to take care of her .

After I had fully satisfied my needs for attention I started to have new needs. I needed to make really big installations that I could do with  a museum and I persuaded The Oakland Museum Of California through The Oakland Standard to let me yarnbomb their building. This installation is taking 6 knitters for the inside and over 18 for the outside . I’m really enjoying this bigger energy-everyone having fun as one – everyone supported by art.

Yarnbombing has taught me that the  whole world is an art gallery . I have been looking at chain link fences for years wanting to bead them . I started beading these fences a few weeks ago near my home . I like the contrast of the coarse barren metal with the shining delicate beads ,you have to come close to the fence to see all the beauty of beads . Now I want to cover the whole world with beads.

Yarnbombing Oakland -Inside and Out

So I have a commission to yarnbomb The Oakland Museum of California in mid Oct . I will be doing this through The Oakland Standard . More about them here . I will be yarnbombing the 4 bannisters in the front of the building out on the street , the 3 bannisters going down into the building ,  bannisters going down into the garden , 2 benches and 2 chairs that are part of  the architectural Jensen installation. And maybe a tree.  All handspun yarn .

The reason that this installation is so extreme is this .  I came up with it and I wanted it to be really big – something that would be big enough that it wouldn’t make me think about knitting and yarnbombing in a whole new way . Too big to be just ‘cute ‘

So now I go around begging my friends to help me knit .  I now have  Brenda Loreman , The Russian , Hargus Rose , The Fibrarian , and Anna Wong all knitting . And I spin all the time . And watch ” Star Trek Next Generation .”

It’s interesting to me how I get really excited and then really doubtful ,alternating . We tend to swerve away from what we really want .

This yarnbombing installation will go up in mid Oct 2011 and will be up for a month . I am so impressed with The Oakland Museum of California -this could be a first -yarnbombing the building of a museum inside and out .

International Yarnbombing Show On The Streets of Oakland , Ca.

At the same time this installation is up I want to put up a yarnbombing street art show using the streets of Oakland as a gallery . I am asking for yarnbombs from all over the world , signed by their artists with names and countries and I will sew them up on street poles , bike racks , parking meters , lamp posts and fences . I need tags that are 7.5 inches around { stretches measurement so they don’t slide down } and 4 to 8 ft long . I want people to get to see the amazing things you can do with knitting and crocheting f , so I’m hoping for ruffles , flowers , fairisle , cables , buttons , bobbles , protrusions  and lots of color .

I need yarnbombs to start coming around Oct 10 so I can start installing . I will take pictures and post them and documant the whole deal

Turning a city into a gallery of knitted street art at the same time a museum has an installation- I like what this says about art , knitting , street art , out new global internet life , freedom and doing what you want .

You may reach me at http://www.streetcolorart.gmail.com  and I will give you a mailing address. { Don’t want to tell everyone who I truly am ! }

i just got a message on Facebook from Dagmar Reichardt that she will help me reach knitters in Germany and Japan. Oh my.

Yarnbombing And Sugar

I often dream I am at a bakery and I am having every different chocolate cake , scone , cream cake , strawberry short cake , custard pie , chocolate truffle and lemon cream pie that they have in their glass case . On Sunday I met The Russian at Sweet Adelaine ‘ s  Bakery in Berkeley and that bakery is like my dream. The counter top and glass case is crammed with cookies , scones ,  fruit buckle cake , blondies , chocolate pave ,  everything I dream about . Unbelievably -I had a chicken curry sandwich , a piece of quiche and just one chocolate chip cookie . I knew I had hours and hours of yarnbombing to do and I didn’t want to get delirious.

I really liked that bakery and there was a good 3 loop bike rack outside . I considered ditching my plan to yarnbomb The Lakeshore library and  spend the day eating cookies and yarnbombing Sweet Adelaine’ s  instead but The Russian sweetly reminded me that I care  deeply about yarnbombing all the libraries of Oakland . So I went my way .

People often ask me about my assistant The Russian . Well she is going off to art school in San Francisco today and I am very proud .  And jealous.

So I drove over to Lakeshore which is very pretty and confusing to drive around . I drove around and around and finally parked my car . I yarnbombed The Lakeshore Library – I’ll tell you about that later – and then I went over to the big Gazebo by Lake Merritt and contemplated 3 lovely little bike racks .  ” They aren’t really a library ” I rationalized  ” But they are very near one and they would look exceptionally nice yarnbombed . ” So I yarnbombed them .

5 bike racks is a lot of sewing so I tried hard to stay relaxed .I’m always nervous at first , sewing and watching police cars drive by and wondering how the police are feeling today in Oakland . Eventually the sun and the shining like soothed me and I began to enjoy the beautiful and totally absurd act of yarnbombing.

The colors are very sugary on this installation . This made it very appealing to small children . A very little girl came and swung on a loop while I sewed . She came very close to me and fingered my pink sewing yarn . Then she wrapped my strip of knitting around her hand in a businesslike sort of way and tried to walk off with it . Sadly , I had to take it away . Later an older woman with a plastic badge around her neck came to watch me and she couldn’t stop giggling at what I was doing . She said she was from Hong Kong and she told me many things in Chinese . She wanted to help me so she held my knitting as I sewed. She held it very tight and crooked so it was only slightly helpful .

More people came by marching for peace . They have been marching for many years and may never get done . They knew all about my yarnbombing on College Ave . A woman and her photographer showed up next and said ” Can we photograph out shoes on your yarnbomb ?”

‘Ok ” I said in confusion . The woman sat down on a bike loop and promptly started to fall off as the knitting spun around . I devotedly hoped if she fell off that she wouldn’t sue me .

I sewed and sewed and worked on a little meditation exercise . Doing . Not doing . Feeling the Not Doing in my body .

At this point I realized that I had no idea where I had parked my car.

When this piece was all done it really looked like something . I couldn’t stop taking pictures . Sometimes yarnbombing looks like another world coming through this one . 2 woman stopped big smiles .” ‘This is your best one ever ” they said .

“I’ll quote you ” I said.

Then I went off to try and find my car .

Yarnbombing and Winston Churchill : The Temescal Library , Oakland , Ca.

When I’m not thinking about The Civil War I sometimes think about Winston Churchill. I like his quote “Never , never , never , never give in ” And to the French he declared ; ” Whatever you may do , we shall fight on forever and ever and ever. “

This may seem an extreme motto for a yarnbomber but it’s more about going on and making art every day under all circumstances. I know Churchill was probably racist and anti Semitic but he was so wonderfully undefeatable. He invented the tank and he was a tank .

I love this quote too” Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous states have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule , we shall not flag or fail . We shall go on to the end . We shall fight in France , we shall fight on the seas and oceans , we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air , we shall defend our island , whatever the cost may be , we shall fight on the beaches , we shall fight on the landing grounds , we shall fight on the fields and in the streets , we shall fight in the hills ; we shall never surrender . “

Ok I hope you’re feeling strengthened

I was really worn out on Wednesday and I accidently slept until 12 . I wanted to yarnbomb the Temescal library in Oakland as part of my Oakland Library series so I shoved my clothes on , ate some dark chocolate with cherries and stomped off to the Temescal Library .

The library is actually pretty fine , it’s a graceful old brick building on Broadway and 52 . There’s a bus stop right in front of it with a bench and a pretty little lawn . I stood in front of the Library and looked for things to yarnbomb . The railings were shapely and alluring but I was not in the mood to do any thing nerve racking or questionable . I wanted to make a gift to the library not vandalize it . I decided to yarnbomb the 3 loop bike rack on the left . It took a long time to sew it up by myself but it was an enjoyable self contained task.

When I was done the manager of the library came out and was wildly enthusiastic . That’s always nice . And the thing was – the knitting did change the whole street . It looked like their was art present . It made the street and the library look interesting , colorful , disconcerting and new.

Yarnbombing works !

I have a friend Maria Mortati who has a mobile museum . I want a mobile museum . She has a blog here with a bit about yarnbombing.