Las Vegas Weekly

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Artist Diane Bush has a long history as a radical hippie, fighting the man, the war, the media and politics. If a movement appeals to her philosophy (and aesthetic), she dives in full throttle. No surprise then that she’s formed a posse of graffiti knitters, a not-so-rogue group of senior crafters, known as the West Flamingo Yarnstorming Group.

Yarnstorming—also called yarn bombing or guerilla knitting—is the movement where knitters “tag” trees, parking meters, sculptures, buses and benches with colorful sweaters and cozies. “I’ve always wondered, ‘Why do cities have more temporary public art and we don’t?’” says Bush, whose group operates out of the West Flamingo Active Adult Center. “When I found that they had groups of women sitting around knitting and crocheting, I thought I’d approach them with the idea.”

The crew, ages 50 and up, creates squares that Bush installs at sanctioned areas around the center. After bombing a railing, Bush is eyeing a pedestrian bridge over Maryland Parkway for International Yarn Bomb Day next June. For now, she says, the crew will focus on home turf: “Our next project will be arms on a bench next to a handicap railing. We’ve got lampposts, parking posts. All things were surveyed around the property that we could cover in yarn.”