Thursday, June 25, 2009

Crochet Week: (Thursday) Carol Hummel + Outi Martikainen

I won't be participating in My Creative Space today... it's been a week of administrivia and I really don't have much to show for my labours I'm afraid... some weeks are like that :| 
Instead, I have two very talented people to showcase – both of whom are artists with a thing for decorating trees with crochet...





Just about everyone has heard of Carol Hummel. Her sculptural public art is her own vividly eye-catching telegraph which fuels her fame. She calls them Tree Cozies to highlight the soft encasing of a solid object. In fact, her work is all about dichotomies – the masculine and the feminine, surface and substance, concealment and protection. All culminate to connote the message that "things are not always as they appear to be and making choices independently of external determining forces is essential to living". Love a good message with a bit of crochet!




Outi Martikainen is a Finnish textile artist who also works with crochet. Again, her work is sculptural, but Outi is more interested in the design process; how forms take shape in space. That is, the most important thing for her is not the finished product but how she got there. She says that when crocheting her pieces she thinks about her grandmother and how she + her friends used to crochet blankets by sewing all their smaller pieces together. It's such a beautiful idea and gives hope that skills are not being lost around the world, don't you think? I found her via here.

5 comments:

Angie said...

WOW, I had never heard of Carol Hummel (I do however live under a rock...if only it was a crotchet-covered rock),

The tree cozy is spectacular!

Kylie said...

Thanks Angie - I think it's pretty cool too :) K

Ivy Long, Edera Jewelry said...

Wow--some incredible crochet! The tree covered in crochet in particular is so visually stunning.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog and leaving such a nice comment about my creative space post!

take care,
Ivy

woollywotnots said...

Thanks for sharing. Amazing finds! I love the sculpture.

Carol Hummel said...

Hey, Angie... I just came upon your website which features my work. Thanks much! I just finished 3 major projects here in Ohio. Knitscape-Cedar Lee involved crocheting cozies on 200 parking meters, 15 light poles and 5 trees; Knitscape- Larchmere involved crocheting 44 trees, and Knitscape-Broadway included 2 trees and 6 posts. I worked on the streets for two months with volunteers ... It was amazing to see how the mood shifted to happy as the crochet went up.. but most amazing were the hundreds of connections I made with the people on street as they shared their humor, appreciation, curiosity and interest. People who had never heard of public art are now living in the midst of it and loving it! I'll be posting images on my website www.carolhummel.com soon! Cheers!