A Small Yarnbombing in Mendocino

 

I knit these tags last year but was overcome with yarnbombing laziness. This year I was an artist in residence at The Mendocino Art center all year and I was consumed with drawing the historic buildings in Mendocino instead of being consumed with putting knitting and felting all over them as I did in the summer of 2014.

So I drew all year and the knitting stayed in a bag. Ok too be more honest , last year I wanted to yarnbomb my Isuzu trooper and drive it around but it turns out you can’t yarnbombing a totally square car at least I couldn’t so I got very downcast about yarnbombing. So anyway it finally stopped raining in Mendocino in July and I yarn bombed this building which is The Mendocino Market where I have spent all my time eating tuna sandwiches and chocolate chip cookies and I wanted to pay tribute to all that happiness.

I had forgotten how much people like yarnbombing and how encouraging they can be. And how much I like free art that isn’t judged by moneymaking process.

 

 

 

 

August 9, 2016 by streetcolor Categories: streetcolor yarnbombingTags: art, knitting, Mendocino, streetcolor, textiles, yarnbombing 1 Comment

Yarnbombing and it’s Gifts

I was reading around the web about yarnbombing and I found an article in Encyclopedia Britannica about yarnbombing from 2011. There was this tiny picture of a very nice yarnbomb with a little tag on it. I kept looking and looking at the tag and yes ! That nice yarnbomb in Encyclopedia Britannica was my yarnbomb ! The Russian and I put them up in 2011 at The Berkeley Rep theater. It funny and pleasing to find out you are slightly famous and don’t know it at all. Here is the story Here

In 2011 and 2012 I did lots and lots of knitted yarnbombing and the media was trending on it so we got lots of attention and articles about us. As time went on and I began to look for new things to try I started doing installations with museums. More time passed and I wanted something more and wasn’t sure what it was. I began to apply to artist residencies and grants and spent a lot of time struggling with on line applications, portfolios and deadlines. And then I had to cope with rejections which I did not have to with my streetart. Then something very good happened to me.

I was accepted to be an artist in residency for yarnbombing at The de Young Museum for one month for Dec 2014. It was announced in The Fine Arts Magazine that comes from The de Young museum so it feels official. I found out 3 months ago.

I’m so happy about this and it’s recognition of yarnbombing as part of the art and textile world. This residency is an open studio -Kimball Studio – at the museum.I will be there knitting and felting and setting up projects that will be available to the public to participate in a museum yarnbombing installation. I hope you will come by and yarnbomb with me.

Yarnbombs from a guerrilla knitting that The Russian and I did in 2010 at The de Young Museum in San Francisco. These images were used in my residency application.

December 30, 2013December 30, 2013 by streetcolor Categories: streetcolor yarnbombing, UncategorizedTags: artist residencies, crocheting, knitting, textiles, The de Young Museum, yarnbombing 5 Comments

Yarnbombing Berkeley -Tie Dyed Tree # 2

I was having a lot of trouble getting myself to put up my tie dyed felts on the trees of Berkeley. I kept wondering what would get me to start. Time was passing and it was getting closer to our rainy season when it would no longer be reasonable to hang felt outside.

So I tried scolding myself ” Don’t be a weenie ! ” I would say every morning. That never works.

So I thought about how I could support myself and make smaller goals. I decided to load all my sewing gear, cameras , step ladder and duffel of felt into the back of my ancient Isuzu Trooper so that I would have it all if I got the urge to vandalize. Than I told myself that I could just go and try out the felt on a tree, no sewing. Then I finally started putting them up.

I seem to be able to put up one tree a day. I sew them up at night. It’s very balmy at night here in Oct and I listen to the crickets .This is my second  tie dyed tree  on Solano and Colusa.

October 16, 2013October 16, 2013 by streetcolor Categories: streetcolor yarnbombingTags: Berkeley, felt, streetart, streetcolor, textiles, yarnbombing 5 Comments

Yarnbombing – A New Beginning

” Have you seen my tie dyed trees ? ” I asked my friend Tony as I dragged him out the door of the store to see them . ” I made a bunch of theses big pieces of felt and then I tiedyed them . I made a lot of them so I could put up several at once ‘

Then I thought about what I said and I wanted to be more truthful ” Actually I made a lot of them first because they are really fun to make and I get nervous about standing out on the street and sewing them up. Even though I’ve only been stopped by police twice I still get nervous ” This is more true. Tony agreed that he too prefers sitting at his dining room table and doing his work more than  having to present it .

‘I tell myself ” This will be fun ! “Tony said ” I really try to believe it ”

Sewing up these big trees is a little fun especially when small children come by and reach over and give the tree a hug. The plan is to put these tie dyed trees up all over Berkeley really quick before it rains. This is the first Berkeley tree.

October 15, 2013October 15, 2013 by streetcolor Categories: UncategorizedTags: art, Berkeley street art, Felting, textiles, tie dyed trees, yarnbombing 1 Comment

Yarnbombing With Permission; The Town of Mendocino

Here in yarnbombing world we are all getting permission for our yarnbombing these days . Sometimes I have been asked to make something by a store or museum and sometimes I want to do something very ambitious and it seems more judicious to ask first. Or polite. I’ve learned 3 things from doing yarnbombing with permission.

1. People will let you yarnbomb almost anything if you ask very formally and gradually with good pictures.

2. Just because you have permission do not mean it won’t get stolen.

3.It’s a little boring to ask permission though you feel calmer when you put the work up.

As you know I yarnbombed The Mendocino Art Center this summer, The picture above is of their gallery yarnbomb. I’m using handmade felt now for my installations but I’m going to just keep cavalierly calling it yarnbombing. I thought it would be interesting to include some places in the town of Mendocino as part of the installation . I’ve always like to mark places that I love and enjoy with some of my color.

This is “The Moose Cafe ” , a restaurant that I revere for it’s chocolate pudding. It’s different sewing up panels of felt rather than knitting, it’s more like dresssmaking, it all has to be pinned and stretched tightly.

I’ve been coming to Mendocino for many years, when you vacation in the same place over and over it gives you a connected peaceful sense of time and a feeling of childhood.I recently found a new place to stay in Mendocino, ” Alegria “. It is heaven , I recommend you go up and stay there right away. To be able to do something wonderful for a long time you have to keep finding new ways to do it.

I yarnbombed with my handspun knitting for 2 years and i did more than any reasonable person who ever do-, ‘The Russian and I did well over 100 installations all over California. But I got tired of the problems, knitting getting taken , vitriolic arguments about yarnbombing on the internet. I also think we did everything we could think of to do. So I didn’t yarnbomb for months.

I thought a lot about what I liked about yarnbombing, how it interacted with the hardscape of the city in such a beguiling and colorful way, how you could show your art immediately with no intermediaries, how much media interest there was compared to gallery art. Eventually I came up with the idea of using my handmade felt the way I had used my knitting, make sheets of painterly felt and put them up on trees, buildings and street furniture.

I’m really liking the new look of the felt and it’s speed but I know for some people it has to be knitting or crocheting to relate. But you have to go where you feel the passion.

September 5, 2013September 5, 2013 by streetcolor Categories: streetcolor yarnbombingTags: art, feltmaking, knitting, Mendocino, textiles, yarnbombing 2 Comments

Fun And Playful Yarnbombs

Here we have a yarnbombed wooly mammoth brought to you by the folks who yarnbombed an airplane – The Yukon Yarnbombers. They made it for The Canadian Museums Conference in May 2013 . Image source

Some people would say all yarnbombing is by it’s nature fun and playful but some pieces have a more outrageous playfulness and remind us that there is no greater meaning in our days than having a little fun.

This is Marcy Kraft of Crochet Grenade who made 3 crocheted Rubik cubes as a guerrilla action for Comic Con in San Diego, Ca on July 29 2013.  As you can see – she also yarnbombed herself. Image source

This is a giant knit croquet set by Suzanne Tidwell made for Carkeek Park in Seattle , Washington called ” Half Court Croquet ..  .Anyone ?” it went up July 13 , 2013 image source

Suzanne Tidwell has solved that perennial urge to make ever larger art by employing a knitting machine and some minions to help her run it. I admire the scale in which she works and the cool commissions she gets,  she just did a big commission yarnbomb for the new Google office in Seattle and she has sold yarnbombs to collectors.

I’m always interested in what people do with their yarnbombs when they take them down, I know Suzanne repurposes them into wine cozies and art objects.

September 1, 2013September 2, 2013 by streetcolor Categories: International yarnbombingTags: art, crocheting, knitting, textiles, yarnbombing Leave a comment

Some Beautiful International Yarnbombs

This sublime yarnbomb was crocheted by File Tag File for Le Lot +la Laine Garden festival at Musee de Cuzal in South Western France. Yarnbombing has inspired so many knitters and crocheters do think on a bigger and freer scale. Image source.

This is The Basel Stadt ferry boat project- Rhine river ferry boats were yarnbombed by baselfarbARTigverstriggt on Sat June 9 in Basel Switzerland. The boats were designed by Kathrin Stalder , Ute Lembeck, Miriam Schaffer and Madeleine Hunziker . Image source

August 31, 2013September 1, 2013 by streetcolor Categories: International yarnbombing, UncategorizedTags: crocheting, knitting, textiles, yarnbombing 2 Comments

Yarnbombing And A Little Fun, Yarnbombing The Mendocino Art Center

I thought it would be fun to yarnbomb a 25 ft tree at The Mendocino Art Center. I thought maybe I should apply for a residency there so I could yarnbomb the whole art center but the residencies are for 9 months. I wrote the art center and inquired if they would like to be yarnbombed and after a long time and many e-mails to many different nice employees and a couple of meetings they agreed.

There are a lot of kinds of fun for me, I like to read, eat salted chocolate, knit , make felt, make botanical drawings in a sketchbook, go to Greece and eat . I always have always enjoyed a little fear in my fun and I think that has been why yarnbombing was particularly fun. I had sort of lost the fear in putting knitting on bike racks and I wanted to yarnbomb trees.  But I didn’t want to knit for a year to cover one tree . Then have someone steal it. So I decided to make handmade felt panels and put them up on trees.

When I went up to measure things at The Mendocino Art Center I saw this tree and was very attracted to it. I wanted to make something extremely big, spectacular and new so I decided to make a 25 ft yarnbomb. I went home and felted 3 8x 5 ft panels.

This was a lot of fun – there is nothing like a clear defined art project that needs to be made in a short sustained amount of time . I had 9 days to make the felt bombs for the tree , the Mendocino Art Gallery , a sign and the Mendocino Theater. I felted very fast. After 9 days I drove up from Berkeley to Mendocino. It was 108 degrees. I poured liters of water all over myself.

I got to The Art Center. and borrowed a broken 25 ft ladder. My goal was to not fall off. After much contemplation I decided to tie the ladder to the tree before I climbed it. I had cam straps in my car from my white water kayaking days and I used those. I pinned 2 panels to the tree and then I got scared to climb any higher. The tree did not look thrilling or right with out all 3 panels so I repinned  the first 2 panels sewed them and climbed up to the very top of the ladder, you know – the part where it says ” Do Not Stand Here !!” I realized I could wrap my arm all the way around the tree and sew the  3rd panel with one hand. I felt very close to that tree.

When I was finished the tree really did look right and very excellent. People stopped and said ” Fantastic ! ” I felt like I had done something that hadn’t been made before.

August 31, 2013August 31, 2013 by streetcolor Categories: streetcolor yarnbombing, UncategorizedTags: art, feltmaking, Fun, knitting, textiles, yarnbombing 2 Comments