We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Christine Schmitt a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Christine, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The most meaningful project I’ve done in my career so far is my solo exhibition that happened recently on the SUNY Oneonta campus. From January 30th to March 9th my show, Emotional Ties, was on display as the first completely crocheted art exhibition in SUNY Oneonta history. I spent a year in total working towards it, from the first piece I made for it to creating the proposal for it, to getting the show and then finally the lengthy installation process for it. It was very well received, both on the day of opening reception and throughout the duration of it being on display.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

When I was in middle school I had joined the crochet club which met in the library on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and that was where I first learned how to crochet. I then went on to never crochet again until college, though I never forgot how to do it. I graduated from high school in 2020, so the very end of my senior year and the first semester of college was during quarantine. I had started my art account for fun during that time since I was stuck at home, posting about any art I was creating, from painting to crocheting to embroidery. I went into college undecided, but still making and posting about art for fun. I went on to be undecided until halfway through sophomore year of college, finally declaring art as my major because I didn’t know what else to do. This whole time I’ve been spending every minute of my free time crocheting. Then junior year first semester, I took a sculpture class and crocheted a life size human sculpture. It was from that point on I decided to make crochet my main medium, with the goal of showing the art world that crochet can be more than just a craft, but a fine art as well. By the beginning of my senior year, I had gotten my solo exhibition.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn the idea of perfectionism. I always got in my head when creating my crocheted art if it was “perfect” or not, and I would get so caught up in the end product and whether or not it looked good that I would not even enjoy the actual process of creating it. And since all my work is time consuming, the process is the most important part. You can’t only have a tunnel vision to the end of creating art, you have to open your eyes to it as it’s happening. And understand that the idea of “perfect” is a moving target and it’s more important to have fun and try your best. Trust that what will happen, will.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Getting to spread my passion with others. Every time someone would come up to me and talk to me about my solo exhibition, it would make me so happy. Majority of people know someone that knits or crochets, and they always tell me stories that relate to what I do. I love the connections I’m able to make with people through my creations.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://christineschmitt.squarespace.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/art.by.schmitty/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-schmitt-489056212/