Happy New Year

photos courtesy of grrl+dog

As we get ready for the year's art projects,

we say goodbye to our manager, 

Julia and send her off with a collage by Phyllis Grima from Denroma.

  

Phyllis has just begun to use collage

on canvas and her flowers are colorful and fun.

 

We hope to develop more card making in 2012 and offer them to the public.

Since most boardng houses charge up to 95% of their pension for living and care, it leaves many boaarding house residents with little or no money to feel autonomous with.

Just $10 extra a week gives someone a trip to a cafe, library, and some experience outside of boarding house life.

all photos courtesy of grrl+dog

Christmas time for Roomies

 It is Christmas time for Roomies Artists.

They joined residents from neighboring boarding houses for a shindig yesterday.

The fruit punch was full of fresh rockmelon and watermelon, 

and bubble sets were on every table.

 The band played so many songs everyone knew and many sang along.
I loved watching the faces.

Kevin enjoyed himself so much he had to walk the excitement off.

It was fun and games trying to find him,

but he returned safely after a trip to the local Macdonalds.

A fellow Roomies artist and philosopher,

Leon danced till the feast appeared.

The punch flowed..

And they all danced the arvo away

photos courtesy of grrl+dog

Roomies has a new blog helper

Roomies Art space just got itself a blog helper - Me!

I really look more like this:

 I've been a guerilla knitter for a few years now, 

and on a large project, Clarrice came and helped. 

But Clarrice things putting good knitting on a pole

is a waste of wool, so we dont do that so much now.

I help out at Roomies Art Space and spend time with Clarrice one on one. We do art trips, work on her soft toys or window wire tapestries or have manicures.

Her window wire tapestries are very popular and she has sold many.

I hope to one day set up an online shop

for her work and the work of other artists at Roomies. 

Thanks for coming by 

and I hope you stick around.

Denise Litchfield

www.grrlandog.com

Denise Litchfield and the art of guerilla knitting

Denise Litchfield and Baxter tagging at Mays Lane Art Project, St Peters (photo Sahlan Hughes)

Denise is a fabulous Roomies supporter and often works with Clarice Collien. This SMH article by Sunanda Creagh, January 14, 2009 is worth quoting in full!

WHERE other graffiti artists use spraypaint, Denise Litchfield uses wool.

Litchfield is part of a growing global movement of guerilla knitters, who stitch their handmade creations onto trees, poles, street lights and other objects in the public domain.

"It redefines street art and is also a reference to graffiti," the Stanmore woman said. "It's absurd and feminine and fun."

Using recycled or cast-off yarn, Litchfield has attached her creations to poles and trees in Newtown and Rozelle and her long-term goal is to knit cosies for fire hydrants and bollards.

Ms Litchfield also pokes fun at the notion of a graffiti "tag" by creating cardboard swing tags similar to those attached to items in a boutique.

"I write messages on them and put them on bikes and dogs. One friend said she was walking down King Street and saw a tag that said 'All your problems have been taken care of' and thought, 'Yeah, I needed to hear that,' " Litchfield said.

"I have been doing it for about six months and I don't know of anyone else doing it in Sydney. I haven't been intercepted by a council ranger yet but often when I put them up people stop to ask what I am doing and to have a chat," she said.

Litchfield has won the support of a Marrickville councillor, Peter Olive.

"I'd be only too happy for her to do some knitting in the Marrickville local government area," he said. "I see it as a form of art and it's not harmful or anyone else's property or the public space. I think it should be encouraged."

Emily Howes, an expert from University of Technology, Sydney, and author of a PhD thesis on "indie craft", said guerilla knitters operated in Scandinavia, the US, Japan and South Africa. She thinks Litchfield might be Sydney's first.

"I think there is a groundswell of activity. The really big guerilla craft group is a collective called Knitta, which has outposts around the world," she said. "They see craft as a subversive and politically motivated act - a way of jolting people out of their comfortable reverie