Mikki Yamashiro’s art is a little bit of this, a little bit of that. An artist, performer, and professional wrestler, she also dabbles in crochet, creating original textile art that is effortlessly cool.
“As a teenager, I learned how to crochet from my mom, Takako Yamashiro,” she relayed in an interview with the Urban Outfitters blog. “I never learned how to read patterns.” Once she figured out that crochet could be much more than just scarfs and baby blankets, the possibilities were endless. “I have been consistently crocheting since then, making costumes, bikinis, soft sculpture, wall hangings, pillows, giant portraits based on the Cathy comics.”
“My aesthetic is all about bright colors, humor and the queering of pop culture,” she says. “So, being surrounded by my work and the beautiful work of my friends creates a pop culture of its own: it’s all around me and part of my daily life.”
Working from her apartment, she takes pleasure in being surrounded by her art. “This is the first time in my life I have lived alone and I thought that I was finally going to have a ‘grown-up’ minimal, fancy, apartment,” she admits. “But it turns out I actually just want to live in a psychedelic TGIFridays/Pee-wee’s Playhouse with plants.”
Enter her playful world:
