the idea: close-up portraits of women with knitted hair

the ideator: Louise Walker

I have always been interested in the line between craft and fine art.  When I was in college I double majored in Painting and Ceramics.  Ceramics is one of those tricky art forms that is constantly being pushed back and forth across the craft line.  This was crystallized for me at the end of college when I sold a painting from my show for 20 times as much as the center pot from my ceramics show ($600 to $30, I think that math works out).

Since moving to Boston I haven’t had much time in the ceramics studio, so my interest with the craft/art line has transferred to the craft that I was taught as a child: knitting.  My knitted canvasses are constantly progressing, the gloves and hat that I started to paint are almost done!

Because of my new project, I’ve been spending a lot more time in the knitting/fiber arts world.  This leads me to other awesome projects that, like my own are combining knitting with fine art.  In this case, portrait photography.  These two pictures are part of a series called Wooly Head by Louise Walker.

As a trained commercial photographer, she has recently gone back to the knitting she also grew up with to make a series of knitted wigs.  These wigs, and the women wearing them, are styled after different eras of hairstyles.  You have to check out the entire series to get them all, even then if you’re fashion-challenged like I am you might not, but it doesn’t take a sense of fashion to appreciate the work behind this awesome idea.

P.S.  All I want to do is paint one of these.