We were lucky to catch up with Gina Gallina recently and have shared our conversation below.

Gina, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

Since I was a child, I have been told how creative I am and that I could be an artist when I grow up, I was also told, because of my argumentative nature, I would make a great lawyer but since I always was grounded for arguing, I never pursued that but have always loved being creative. I was a day dreamer, always building elaborate towns for my dolls, coming up with One man Variety shows that I would sell tickets to my parents and have to impatiently wait until they were done watching ‘ Entertainment Tonight” before I could perform my magic. I wrote tons of little books. I even wrote menus for my imaginary playdough restaurant. i wrote an Opera and would fake Opera sing as long as I was entertaining, I didn’t care. Most children have a wild imagination, and I don’t feel like I was special, but I feel I have kept my creative bug with me my entire life. When I turned 18, I immediately left my hometown St. Petersburg, FL, even though I had a supportive and loving family, the misery of being 18 was my company and I desperately searched for a place I felt like I belonged. I soon met a band of hippies and traveled all over America feeling free and liberated to let the pressures of expectations down. After a year of traveling, I ran into Eureka Springs, Arkansas and immediately fell in love with town. I felt like I could 100% whole heartedly be myself and at that time, I didn’t know what that was, but I felt that I could relax, I got my first job waiting tables and got a cute little apartment in Taterville on the outside of Eureka. Soon after, I met my friend Melissa Carper, and we started a band together. We just enjoyed being creative with each other but soon we discovered we are really having fun and started making money. That is when I felt I wanted to pursue this creative path full time. I would be years later that I quit the late-night music life and dove into the crochet home life. Naturally I have taken this craft with an artistic approach, I have always worked part time somewhere to make ends meet that has held me back, It was difficult to pursue this creative life and have to work a part time job for someone else. I also stink at working for other people. I don’t understand retail, waiting tables is physically and mentally painful and I never went and got a degree in anything, I discovered I could make that little amount of money just working for myself. After the pandemic I decided to give it a full on shot at trying to do this full time. I genuinely live and breathe crocheting and making art, I feel in my soul that I need to keep this up and that I can figure out a way to make a living doing what I love. This is the first time I have really applied myself and so far so good, but I am still on “trial” I may have to get another part time job someday and that’s what keeps me trying very hard every day, to not have to work for someone else.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a crochet addict; err I mean artist. My grandmother taught me to crochet when I was 8 years old. We would watch Italian cooking shows and make newborn hats and bibs for the special needs children. Nana always put us to work. Whatever we did was for purpose. I crocheted throughout the years, I never even heard of patterns until the rise of the internet. Because of this, I was able to free form crochet and use my imagination to create purses, scarves, and hats. In 2008, I had moved to Austin, TX and was on the road traveling for work, up to 8 hours a day sometimes, so crocheting was the perfect past time. Few years later, after some major life changes, I became depressed and ran back home to Eureka Springs, I rented a cabin in the woods to hole up in and crocheted like a madwoman to heal myself. Someone had once told me, ” If you are feeling depressed and lost in life, Do something great! ” And that’s what I did. I crocheted a gigantic Taxidermic Deer head, I crocheted my chair, then the other chair. I crocheted a giant plate of bacon and eggs. I did it all for me, but noticed how not only it was making me happy, but my friends too. So then in 2013, I crocheted the trees for the annual White Street Walk and crocheted an entire room at my friend Caitlin’s house. That grabbed the attention of artist photographer Jeremy McGraw. He reached out and asked if I wanted to collaborate a show called “Yarnography”. A photo series of 6 crocheted scenes, Show was held at the Press Room in Bentonville, AR August 2013. I have not stopped since.
This is the time when I took crochet art to a professional level, at this time, crocheting was still coined as a ” Grandma Sport’ so I definitely got mis-categorized as crafty instead of art. Definitely felt overlooked and not taken seriously as an artist, But I also soon learned I didn’t care what others thought of me. I do this because I love it. When I was approached by Vogue knitting Live to create an installation for their event in NYC, Thats when my perspective changed about fiber art. I didn’t even know what I was doing was fiber art. I just thought I was doing weird girl crochet things until I arrived, and my world was filled with yarn and art. I met the fabulous Lily Chin who has been making crochet art while I was still in Highschool, I met London Kaye who also makes incredible crochet art on the streets of New York. I learned the names of the stitches I was doing, learned the cool lingo such as ” Frogging” which means, if you mess up, you can go back and ” Rip it Rip it” out. I felt like I was on my own planet! I was so overwhelmed with joy; I don’t know if I will ever feel that again. I was appreciated as a Crochet artist for the first time. That just fueled me keep going with the art side of crochet. This explains the 10foot giant Pineapple, Or the 10-foot Giant mushroom and flowers, or the 8-foot crocheted ” Fayetteberry”, the real-life size Queen Bee Gown and garden, the giant roses and bees, the wild Marie Antoinette crocheted wigs and the other strange and fun in between. I am still trying to define my place as a crochet artist, I still get asked to crochet or tagged in things someone else crocheted. I always tell them to find that person that created it. I do not find inspiration in other people’s crochet; I just find happiness. Sometimes I can’t look at other crochet art, then I feel I can’t ever try that, because someone else already did. I don’t know if that is a thing or if I am just a weirdo, I get my inspiration from old movies, songs and color combinations. I am driven by color and that explains one of the reasons I use acrylic yarn. I didn’t know it was “bad” to use it until after the fact. Acrylic yarn is also affordable for large projects and outside installations. I do use other natural fibers, but it’s usually more than what most want to spend on crochet. Most of my community knows, if they are getting a commission from me, it will be unique and not a copy of anything they see online. I appreciate the jobs where I am able to just be myself. It is hard to see what sets me apart from others, other than my insanity to crochet at full speed days on end to complete large pieces. I am forever on the hunt for space to crochet wall to wall.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The biggest lesson I have had to unlearn is to stop doubting myself. For so many years, I have felt I wasn’t good enough to showcase my art, or to have a little spot in a museum or to write my own pattern book. I was always looking to others to find acceptance to find out if I was good. I recently have decided that I am good enough because I say I am. This realization happened in 2022 I was just sitting waiting for someone to reach out to me for a big project. I waited all year. I cried, I yelled at the sky asking why? I felt like I had all the potential and capabilities to create something amazing for my community yet there was silence. I live and breathe crocheting! Why can’t I do this? Our local museums and venues were calling on out of state crocheters, I was being overlooked. I thought my crocheting days were over. So, I started making macrame cat beds that no one would buy. No one came to my Etsy account, No one was seeing my website. I was broke. My husband was becoming concerned of my ability to put my financial share in, So, after a good crying spell, it came to me to start asking questions. I called a trusted friend, Hannah, who has kept it for real since the day I met her when I first moved to Eureka. I called her and asked her what is wrong with me? She said, “Hmm let’s see what’s going on.” She came back with my current life red inked and edited. Including my website and Bio. She asked if I even had an artist statement. Which of course I didn’t. I thought all of that was unnecessary because I’m not that important enough to have all of that. Well, that day, I decided to ditch that way of thinking, I figured, whatever I was thinking before wasn’t working. Time to try something new. This led to me talking to another friend about how good I was feeling lately, and she recommended some self-help books on how to stop doubting yourself and to start investing in yourself. After 48 years of living, I finally feel like I am worth making my dreams come true. I am grateful that I figured out what questions to ask. I feel that’s the hardest part. I also want to give a shout out to our pal Failure. People see failure as a negative thing or being defeated. I feel that failure is necessary. If you don’t take it personal, it is a tool to help you change directions in places you never even thought needed changing. It is one of life’s free lessons. It is constant, yet rewarding work to keep believing in yourself, I am in the planning stages of writing my big pattern book. Every time I do research, and see one of my idol’s pattern books, my heart drops and I think ” Ugh who am I to think I am on that level? ” Then I smack myself back to the real world and say, ” I think that way!!” because, after all this is my life, my art and I want to share it with you.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My goal and mission are to be able to get out of this perpetual survival mode. I feel that the stress of trying to live interferes with creativity. Want to discover all of the ways I can pay the bills, eat and buy more yarn. Isn’t’ that the ultimate goal?

Contact Info:

• Website: GinaGallina.com
• Instagram: ginarosegallina
• Facebook: GinaGallina

Image Credits
Jeremy Mason McGraw credited for – Profile photo, Hunter scene, and Bicycle scene Experience Fayetteville credited for Giant Mushroom Scene