Scott Bickmore

Since 2009 Bickmore has started and organized several conceptually and collaboratively driven projects under the umbrella of company, SSEWARD. Projects include: The Monochromes Project, Bifocal Magazine, The Bluebird of Happiness, ll Lincoln­Line ll, recordbooks, Braille­Embroidery Bracelets, The Sewing Circle of Philadelphia, Poseidon and PET. Bickmore teaches art and works with outreach based organizations including the Mural Arts Program, Fleisher Art Memorial and Art Sanctuary. Bickmore has exhibited and been featured in print, television, and online locally, nationally and internationally. 

Bickmore’s work in our reCreate Featured Artist Gallery included crochet hooks carved from found wood and the “2nd Wave” of The Poseidon Project. The traveling installation is based on “Poseidon Scarves” made by a shop in SOHO called Loopy Mango. Their design consists of a single chain of crochet using thick, Alpaca wool. But instead of Alpaca wool, installation was made from blue fabric pieces (including salvaged fabrics from The Resource Exchange) in collaboration with Scott Bickmore and members of  the nationally awarded and Michelle Obama endorsed Teen Lounge Program. Bickmore and members of The Sewing Circle of Philadelphia taught the students to crochet the reclaimed fabrics into a gradient of blue chains, each the length of its maker’s height as a kind autobiographical contribution to this body of water. Initially, students hooked with needles hand-carved from fallen branches found in an empty lot in Kensington. Some, however, caught on to using their fingers and then, with the larger strands of fabric, their hands and arms.  

Teen Lounge coordinator, Maryan Captan, says about the project: “The Poseidon Project is a study of found materials and crochet, of repetition and mindfulness. Over the course of 4 weeks, students were taught to and asked to tear, sort, and hand crochet long blue strands. Artist Scott Bickmore encouraged students to connect with one another while engaging in the meditative act of repetition. The goal was to produce as many strands as we could in 4 weeks to install a great “wave” using recycled material.”

Below, you can see pictures of The Poseidon Project, as well as images from the “Crochet with Reclaimed Fabrics Workshop” that Scott led at The Resource Exchange.