#teamolek

It’s been an amazing ride being a part of Team Olek. The most amazing moment was witnessing Harriet Tubman’s Great Great Grand Niece, Pauline Copes Johnson, experience the 32’ crocheted mural.

Love Across the USA Olek is a bright and bubbly ball of energy. She is passionate and articulate. She is an artist originally from Holland, both inspired and inspiring; And she is starting to work her way across The United States of America enlisting new "Team Olek" members to help spread her vision of "Love Across the USA". Olek lives and works in New York City and has created public art all over the world, much of it illegal, all of it to raise social awareness for issues close to her heart. She is a feminist with an affinity for camouflage, performance art, bright colors and pushing boundaries. She believes that the audience or observers' response is wherein lies the actual art. Olek's medium of choice is crocheted yarn. Yep, that's right, crocheted modern art. Olek is beginning Love Across the USA with two massive crocheted murals in New York State with the likenesses of historic suffragist residents. Before the 2016 Presidential Election she crocheted an "I'm With Her" billboard featuring a portrait of Hillary Clinton. Using only black, white, and neon pink yarn from her sponsor @redheartyarns (the American made yarn company is donating all of the yarn for Love Across the USA), Olek is scouting volunteers from select cities to participate in craftivism public art scapes similar to the I'm With Her Billboard. In Auburn and Rochester hundreds of volunteers participated in free crochet workshops where Olek shared her story, art, technique, and secret mural layout. I was thrilled to participate in a workshop in Auburn's Schweinfurth Art Center to learn a new skill and make new friends. Celebrate May 4th 6-8 we're partying for the unveiling of the Love Auburn Harriet Tubman Crocheted Mural at Schweinfurth Art Center! The design has been kept secret from the general public, and crocheting volunteers have only seen the plan and their individual blocks. It will be really exciting to see how each block coordinates to create a cohesive 25'x35' image, come on out and see! https://www.facebook.com/events/1963491987207928/?ti=icl The Workshop If you're lucky enough to be near a Love Across the USA city when Olek comes to town I would highly recommend attending the workshop. Even if you end up not wanting to make a block, learning the skill and experiencing Olek's presentation is well worth it! At Schweinfurth Art Center Olek walked us through her philosophy and shared examples of her work before teaching us how to crochet. Olek Her story is inspiring and exciting and has birthed beautiful, interactive, original art. She speaks of hope and activism and has been a part of so many amazing iniatives. Love Beyond Borders featured raceless, genderless, ageless characters dressed head to toe in Olek's signature multicolored crocheted camo. These performance art happenings and images are fascinating. Some of Olek's art is kind of like yarn bombing street side objects. The Wall Street Bull was covered in crochet in the secret of night on Christmas Eve 2010 as her response to bankers getting bailed out. We all paid for that during the recession but Olek wanted to remind the rest of us that the future is bright. She told us a story of a pink suit like her Love Beyond Borders skins and a crochet covered bicycle having been vandalized; the bicycled burnt on the street. Instead of prosecuting the boys, Olek found out why they did what they did. They destroyed it because it seemed "gay". She sat with them, talked about the issues, she taught them to crochet, made amends, and their "punishment" was crocheting scarves for the homeless. These stories are small examples of compassion and community through crochet. This is Olek's borderless language. Much of her work is now done with communities like Love Auburn, deepening a statement, and removing ego. New Skills Teaching crochet to prisoners, prostitutes, refugees and other people just like you, has become important to Olek's vision. Learning a new skill can be rehabilitating, empowering, regardless how silly it may seem. When Olek sat with those boys who destroyed her art she realized the importance of creating with community. During the workshop she said something I didn't understand until I really got into the Love Auburn project. She said it's important, but it's harder to create her art with community. That struck me as strange, it seemed to me that with more hands, more help, it would be easier. There are a lot of things I learned from this experience, and it is definitely way harder to coordinate hundreds of individuals to create one cohesive piece of art. Each participant crocheted a block with a number that corresponds with the overall plan. This is a giant puzzle! I have found myself thinking about and seeing things differently since learning how to crochet. I hope to incorporate the new skill into my fashion business Themis and Thread. Crocheting is nothing like anything else I have done artistically, except for maybe making friendship bracelets as a kid. The overlapping, intertwining yarns chain across each other, holding what was just a skinny yarn all together into a form. You're looking at one piece of yarn, manipulated through knots to become something bigger, but the knots and twists are only partially visible. Like leaves filling in and covering the depths of a forest, what you see is only a small portion of what is really out there. Olek's technique didn't come easily to me, but the satisfaction of finally having that "light bulb" moment when I got it was exhilarating. Many of us stop learning new things when we get older, it feels like learning gets harder. We think "You can't teach old dogs new tricks.", but that is entirely untrue. We are learning, relearning, reinforcing and changing every day. To resist learning is to lose hope. The unique human ability to learn something new and apply it is the same ability we have, and need, to forge change. A new skill is a small step to new thinking. Harriet Tubman lived in a world accepting of evils like slavery and murder, and had the vision and passion and drive to propose great change. Changing the world starts with changing your mind. If our country can overcome slavery, give voting rights to citizens regardless of sex, what else can we do together?

The approach was exciting! T&T designer, helper, and button maker all participated in the first of 50 crocheted mural installments recognizing strong women like Harriet Tubman in each state by 2020. Artist Olek and @redheartyarns is making it all happen with her Love Across the USA campaign.

So. Much. Love. 👑 #teamolek #loveacrossakron #loveacrosstheusa 📷 @_jennkidd_ (at Akron, Ohio)

Bad. Ass. 😛 #teamolek #girl #loveacrosstheusa #loveacrossakron #omgolek

#HeyAkron See that frame being installed at Lock 3? 👀 Just wait until you see the crochet mural we’re fastening onto that frame 🧡💛💚#loveacrosstheusa #loveacrossakron #teamolek #omgolek #imforakron (at Lock 3 Akron, Ohio)

We. Did. It. 🙌 #LoveAcrossAkron [ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀] ❤️ We matched our Knight Arts Challenge grant in 👏 four 👏 months 👏 (Did I mention we matched funds without any additional grants? Thank you to everyone who donated, you put the FUN in fundraising!) #bragitude [ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀] ❤️160+ squares of yarn have been crocheted by members of the community ✅ Thank you to everyone who contributed their time and talents![ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀]❤️ The squares will be assembled by Olek to create a large scale crochet mural. If you’re a crocheter and are interested in assisting Olek during the process of seaming squares together, contact @harpsandthistlesyarnemporium [ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀]❤️ Love Across Akron is celebrating with a Mural Reveal Pot Luck pARTy and we would be delighted if you’d join us for an afternoon of free family friendly fun 🎉 [ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀] ❤️ Bring a tasty covered dish to Lock 3 for a community picnic and Love Across Akron celebration on Monday May 28 3-7pm 🌞And we are thrilled that @popsmithpops is joining us with their small batch artisanal ice pops #takeallmymoney / Mayor Dan Horrigan will kick off the festivities at 3p and you don’t want to miss Olek reveal the mural as part of her Love Across the USA initiative @loveacrosstheusa #loveacrosstheusa #teamolek #omgolek [ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀]📷 Jenn Kidd Photography @_jennkidd_ (at Lock 3 Akron, Ohio)