Life has not been easy for artist and knitter Annie Eckrich. After her parents divorced and her mom stopped receiving child support, the family’s home was foreclosed on when she was 16. They spent some time floating from place to place, even living in their car sometimes.
She developed an eating disorder, and her mom taught her to knit to cope with all that was going on.
Now 22, she’s health and a recent graduate of Kalamazoo College, with a major in art and art history. She’s still knitting and recently completed “Safe House,” a 9.5 foot square, 13 foot tall structure made of knitting and complete with a knit couch, knit mailbox and baskets of wool roving for decor.
The piece has been installed — with Annie inside it — at the Urban Institute of Contemporary Arts, where it is part of the ArtPrize competition, the winner of which will receive $20,000.
This is a great story about the power of art and knitting and we wish Annie luck!
[Photo by Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood via MLive.com.]
$200,000!! I sure hope she gets it. I love it, and her story is touching. I think she could make and sell these things.
I hope she wins! I wonder if she has thought of taking pictures of just the wall knitting for wall paper. I would love to have a knitted wall paper!
Amazing and I hope she wins also. This needs to be in a knitting magazine.