Artist Statement

Knitwear Design

My knitwear designs are meant to be knittable and wearable. The designs are inspired by clean lines, classic silhouettes, and functionality. I consider my designs to be neo-masculine, manly but with a flare that moves away from “traditional” designs for men. While color and texture are key components of these designs, I also embrace the unconventional, the “knitting no-no’s,” such as cables over dark colors and variegated yarn in lacework. I want my pieces to force people to take a second, longer look to the find the subtleties within the design.

My current designs are tending toward seasonal vests and atypical accessories. The majority of men will not wear full sweaters, and vests are a viable alternative, with the color and fiber content changing with the seasons. Scarves and neckerchiefs can be functional or double as accessories for a more casual look than a tie.

Knitted Art

The process behind my pieces is as interesting, if not more so, than the pieces themselves. Transforming an artist’s rendering of colored squares into a piece of sculptural knitting is as fascinating to me as it is to the viewer. I cannot tell how any individual piece will turn out until it is completed. Even when the knitting is finished, the blocking process may change the feel of the final piece entirely. I would like to challenge myself to find a way to translate classical paintings into knitted pieces. How, for example, would Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” look as knitted sculpture?

My current pieces are collaborative works. Other artists render the grid designs which I then translate into knitted pieces. The grids are pieces of standard graph paper on which the artists create a rectangular design using only the three primary and three secondary colors, and black and white. Each color gets assigned a particular stitch. A knitting chart is then created from the design and the piece is knitted from the chart. The pieces are very organic and would only very rarely turn out rectangular. I may try to render some grids myself, but I am afraid the outcome may be biased as I know the formula for the translation and how to balance the stitches so the number of stitches across a row does not change. I am always looking for new collaborators willing to do a rendering.

Bio
CV