A couple of weekends ago, I got back from driving to Minnesota for a vacation and I wasn’t sure if I would be up for another car based adventure so soon but there was something happening in Los Angeles that I just couldn’t pass up.
Although the PNW Community Coral Reef has the same flavor as the community based fiber art coral reefs spearheaded by the Wertheim Sisters, my personal initial inspiration for a fiber art coral reef came from the Indonesian fiber artist Mulyana. Back when I first started poking around the internet, searching for crocheted coral and thinking I had come up with an original idea, I found Mulyana. Not only are his creations incredible but as an Indonesian, he comes from the part of the world where I have personally dived on coral reefs when I was in the merchant marine.
I love the concept of a community coral reef where thousands of people contribute and make an astonishing piece of art but I also have to stop in wonder at the beauty of an entire reef created by a single artist with a vision.
I wanted to visit Mulyana’s installation in person to get a close up of the knit and crocheted pieces and to get inspiration to bring back and show to folks interested in creating pieces. I hope you will enjoy my visit to the museum!
