Staypineapple Art: Crochet
Crochet Art Collaboration
We love all art, and seek out unique, colorful artists to work with. The colors aligned and we met the crochet queen, Gina Rose Gallina through a mutual three-name artist friend, Jeremy Mason McGraw. We were in the process of planning an event to unveil our newest hotel, The Alise Chicago and wanted to go BIG. We ended up going GIANT with an almost 10-foot tall crocheted Pineapple displayed in the lobby of the hotel right next to the famed Atwood Restaurant.
The GIANT Pineapple took over three months to create and about 8 miles of yarn. We were curious, how many times would that yarn travel end to end, from the floor of the historic Reliance Building to the top and back down? … Over eight times!
During the time the GIANT Pineapple was displayed at The Alise Chicago we also held crochet classes in our crochet bombed Burnham Room. Gina brought her fantastic and bountiful crochet pieces and turned our Burnham Room into an uplifting space beaming with color. From a crocheted umbrella to a garden of yarn, there were so many intricate pieces to feast your eyes on. Local yarn lovers and guests were able to enjoy the room as they learned or refined their crochet technique while sipping on a cocktail or coffee.
The Queen of Crochet
Gina lives in Eureka Springs, a small artist town in rural Arkansas. She has yarn bombed her small town and built intricate crochet sculptures that toured the United States with Vogue Knitting Live. We loved her answer to the thought of creating an almost 10-foot tall crocheted Pineapple… “Why not?!”
At Staypineapple we share the same zest for challenges and colorful spirit that Gina embodies. Her artistic work at our hotels creates a surprise moment for guests peeping an enormous bright Pineapple yarn sculpture through our windows. You can’t help but smile when you see the GIANT Pineapple and we love seeing our guests happy, as happy as Gina is!
The Crocheted Pineapple Family
After our large unveil party at The Alise Chicago, the GIANT Pineapple made a long journey across the country to The Alise San Francisco. While the GIANT pineapple traveled, Gina was back at crocheting. This time, she created the Pineapple Patch of smaller colorful crocheted pineapples to represent each of our hotels. The almost 3-foot-tall pineapples are perfect additions to the exhibit and create depth and detail for guests to take a closer look at. We may have caught a few people sneaking a quick crocheted Pineapple hug!
The GIANT Pineapple and Pineapple Patch are on a tour of our hotel properties. To stay up on where they will head next follow us on social media and check out #StaypineappleArt for updates!
The crocheted Pineapple fun continues on. For Pride Month (June), Gina created a colorful rainbow Pineapple for a close friend. Our President caught a glimpse of this colorful Pineapple online and Gina is making her, her very own Rainbow Pineapple!
We lie in the colorful crosshairs, or shall we say crossyarns, between crochet art and hospitality.
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