Skip to main content

Profile: Patrick Ahern, Crochet Artist

Monday, July 29, 2013
As I said in my book, The Fine Art of Crochet, at the conclusion of the introduction: "Fortunately today there are many, many artists who choose to express themselves through the medium of crochet. Although space constraints prohibit me from featuring them all, my hope and my dream is that this book will be a springboard to the understanding, not only for crocheters but for the public at large, that crochet is a valid and vibrant medium in the field of art!"

My plan is to continue to educate about crochet as art here on my blog and today I am featuring fiber artist, Patrick Ahern from Los Angels. He is a kind soul and it was a pleasure getting to know him by phone.
Patrick Ahern, of Los Angeles, was a musician before he was a crocheter. He likens both skills to each other because he says, “The chords in music are patterns and crochet patterns have rhythm to them as well.” Patrick further explains that he gets a sense in his head, but he doesn’t have to follow a rigid framework to create his artistic and complicated tapestries.

As a child growing up in California, he attended an all-boys Catholic high school where football was stressed. In art class, Pat learned drawing, but careers in the arts were never encouraged. “There was so much negative emphasis in my school,” he recalls. “They told us we would be poor if we didn’t get into an Ivy League college. I ended up going to community college because I believed I was not ever going to make it as an artist; and I stayed there for ten years!” Pat explains that he took classes in color analysis, fashion and drawing. “I use everything I ever learned;” he says; “and I don’t want to go back to college.  I just want to crochet.”

Now, at age 32, Patrick’s goal for 2013 is to market himself and his work. “My life goal,” he says “is to be comfortable and to have the time and inertia to move my art along. That’s the hard part; it is all up to me.

Inspired by tapestries in the many museums he has visited, Patrick found that the majority are woven. He loves to use tapestry yarn because it is 3-ply and strands can be added to or it can be made thinner as needed. “I also use chunky yarn as filler where needed. Stitches are the foundation of my crochet tapestries, just like the woven ones I studied.”

Creating his portrait tapestries since 2005, Patrick creates stitch by stitch looking at a photograph. “I am painting a ‘picture’,” he explains. “Paint has its own texture. Crochet is kind of like sculpting, but my works are flat. When one takes a close look, there is texture like brush strokes. Crochet is the original 3-D printer – from cozies to the hyperbolic plane, anything can be made with the right stitches. Counting is an important aspect of my crochet design, especially when it comes to gauge. I always use one size hook and two or three stitches. By counting, I get the proportions right.”

Inspired by his love of Norman Rockwell, the clean lines of Hollywood portraits and Impressionism, Patrick often questions himself and his method. “Am I just re-creating a photograph?” he ponders. “My challenge is always this - Can I create this picture in crochet and not have it be an exact replica?” He explains that his method is free form yet, he puts a lot of structure into the piece and has to know how the stitches work in order to do so. “Incredible creativity comes from rules,” he believes. “Yet one needs to know the rules in order to break them.”

Patrick sees so much potential with crochet; he is still amazed after all this years with what he can create that he says he will never leave it behind. “I can crochet better than I can draw and when I give myself problems to solve during the creative process, it is better than complete freedom!”

To see more of Pat's work, so to www.patahernart.com. His work has been compared to that of Jo Hamilton, who is highlighted in a chapter of my book. See for yourself  in this profile of Patrick at: http://www.crochetconcupiscence.com/2012/10/portrait-crochet-art-from-pat-ahern/    

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A History of Crochet, Part 1

The word crochet is derived from the French word, croche , meaning hook.  Early on it was almost entirely a convent art, classified as nun’s work.  The exact origin and date of crochet is in great doubt.  Some believe it goes back to before the time of Christ, but there is no record of this form of needle art before the 1800’s and it was not until the 1840’s that written instructions were published. Hand-turned hook from author’s collection Archeologists believe the Israelites were familiar with crochet during the time of Solomon, before the first millennium BC when they left Egypt.  Heinz Edgar Kiewe, in his book titled  The Sacred History of Knitting , concluded that crochet hooks were probably implements of that time. He refers to the story of one of Jesus’ followers, Akida Ben Joseph who was said to have used a crochet hook so that he might spend his time as a shepherd more usefully. Crochet has been handed down from generation to generation through family and frien

Craft vs. Fine Art: How is Crochet Blurring the Lines

I was awakening to the world of crochet in 1972,a time of immense artistic expression through fiber arts; and crochet was not the “ugly stepchild” at the time. In fact, Ferne Cone Gellar who I admire as a successful fiber artist said in “Knitting: The Stepchild of the Fiber Arts?” ( Fibercraft Newsletter 1978), “Has knitting been slighted among the areas of the fiber arts? The very word ‘knitting’ evokes images of the little old lady in tennis shoes. Over the years, I’ve learned to ignore all those jokes.” Cone Gellar went on to publish Crazy Crocheting in 1981 and encouraged her readers to create more than bedspreads, providing ideas such as “things to play with or to display on a shelf or hang on a wall.” A photo of single crochet from bread wrappers served as inspiration.  In 1972 in her book, Creating Art from Fibers & Fabrics , Dona Meilach wrote: “Why are fibers and fabrics becoming increasingly appealing to artists? Most artists agree

What is Free Form Crochet?

Monday, January 6, 2014 This topic came about from the title of my article recently in Fiber Art Now magazine.  "Crochet As Art: A Conversation with 5 Free-Form Crochet Artists." Yes, the 5 artists I wrote about, all of which are in  my book  The Fine Art of Crochet , are free-thinking when it comes to their creativity. They are free-wheeling with the hook and use unique fibers in many cases. Once you read the article, tell me what  you think? Are these artists doing free-form crochet? In order to define free-form crochet, we must look way, way back to it's origins: Irish crochet. A brief history of crochet, including the Irish method, written by Ruthie Marks is available through The Crochet Guild of America . Unfortunately, there are no images on the site. On her blog, Nancy Nehring has a beautiful montage of Irish Crochet in reference to a class she taught in 2013 at Lacis . I wrote an article in Old Time Crochet Magazine (Spring 1998), "History of Irish Croc