San Francisco Civic Center Plaza
These whimsical animals and are designed and installed by Jill and Lorna Watts of Knits For Life as part of the “Knitting the Commons” project.
For those not familiar Yarn bombing is a type of street art that employs colourful displays of knitted or crocheted yarn or fibre rather than paint or chalk. It is also called yarn storming, guerrilla knitting, kniffiti, urban knitting, or graffiti knitting.
According to their website: Knitting the Commons is a temporary art project that aims to ‘knit’ together San Francisco’s central public spaces – Civic Center Plaza, UN Plaza, and Fulton Street between the Main Library and the Asian Art Museum – referred to as “the Commons”.
Lorna and Jill Watt are two sisters working at Claremont Art Studios in San Francisco.
They say of their art: “Self-taught makers, our story started in college. Jill studied at San Jose State University and Lorna studied at San Francisco State University then Michigan State University. While getting her Masters in Michigan, Lorna made Jill stay one winter when we’d both taken up knitting and crocheting. Sparks flew and Lorna moved back to California after graduation. Stitch by stitch, we’ve pursued our dream of bringing imaginations to life with yarn ever since.”
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