DISPLAY
KNOTTY BY NATURE
Crocheted characters as artistic expression .
BY SAVANNAH MUÑOZ ’ 21
THE FIGURES stand silent all around the room , evoking the sense of a telepathic , otherworldly cocktail party . Their wardrobes are all equally bizarre , yet the materials are completely familiar — the yarns typically woven into scarves , hats , and mittens now make up an entire being . These companions seem straight out of fantasy ; their horns , snouts , and eyes are fuzzy and soft , almost cozy . You are encouraged to touch them — but are you too uncomfortable to reach out ?
This is the art of Zac Monday , MFA ’ 10 — his “ monsters ,” as he calls them . Many were made throughout his time as a visual arts graduate student , using any and every spare moment he had . “ Crochet is an incredibly versatile and portable medium ,” he says . “ I can be sitting on a bus , busy making any one of these figures . Older ladies might ask what I ’ m making — they certainly get intrigued when I say , ‘ a tusk ’ or ‘ a horn .’”
Monday ’ s creative use of crochet stems from the folk art movement , where art is made with everyday materials readily accessible to everyone . His mother taught him how to crochet before he pursued an undergraduate degree in his home state of Virginia .
“ I didn ’ t like crochet at first because of how much patience it requires — and I didn ’ t have any ,” he says . “ But I did appreciate how it was passed down from the women in my family , this selfless act they performed to ‘ warm ’ their communities .”
Patience prevailed , and crochet eventually became a large part of Monday ’ s artistic expression , along with drawing , video , music , and mysticism . Yet crochet is where he is at his most playful and experimental , actively avoiding the constrictions of detailed plans and exacting patterns . Instead , he tries out his own formulas in his
18 TRITON | WINTER 2021