Arts & Entertainment Community

Sock monkey display kicking it at the Gig Harbor Library

Inspiration struck George Long in 2015, when he visited an art studio and watched as an artist created a sock monkey.

At the time he lived in York, Penn., and was nearing retirement after owning and operating a successful commercial roofing business. In an instant, he had an idea for what he wanted to do, so he commissioned the artist to make 50 sock monkeys. He then began working on ideas for a sock monkey sculpture.

“My main goal when I started was I needed something to do in retirement,” Long said. “I’ve always wanted to do something creative, so that’s what motivated me.”

He wanted to create something fun, and unique — a traveling sock monkey installation that would delight and inspire others.

More sock monkeys

As it turned out, 50 sock monkeys were not enough for what Long had in mind for The Sock Monkey Project. So he asked artist Mariah Hertz to make more of them.

Hertz, an artist and web designer who still resides in York, said she was perplexed by Long’s original request for 50 sock monkeys and wondered what he was going to do with them.

A group of sock monkeys gather to make s’mores at the Gig Harbor Pierce County Library. Photo courtesy of Bennie Weeks

“I had just graduated college,” Hertz said. “The college had a program where you can be a part time artist in a studio, so I had a studio space in York, and was making sock monkeys in my booth. He came up to me and asked me to make 50 of them, and I didn’t know what to think. But then it went up to 60, and then he said 120.”

Hertz said her love for sock monkeys began because her high school art teacher displayed an enormous sock monkey in the classroom.

“I didn’t grow up with sock monkeys, and I thought that was the coolest thing in the world,” she said.

To get started on his project, Long asked friends and family to donate their colorful, wild-patterned socks. He ended up with enough to make 120 monkeys. He dropped the socks off with Hertz. In a year and half, in 2017, she had made enough sock monkeys for Long to execute his vision.

George Long with the sock monkeys that he commissioned for The Sock Monkey Project, a traveling art exhibit that he created to inspire others. Photo courtesy of George Long

Long and his wife and promoter, Bambi, moved to Gig Harbor in 2021, hoping to buy a home. They’re still looking, he said, but he has continued with his vision to spark creativity in others through his traveling sock monkey project.

Gig Harbor Library display

The Sock Monkey Project is currently on display at the Gig Harbor Library as part of the rotating art program that allows local artists to show their work for a limited time.

There are colorful, zany monkeys making s’mores,  playing Quidditch in the Harry Potter vignette,  building Legos on one shelf, and climbing for bananas in a glass vertical case. Others hang from the ceiling in various places. A handful of them form a gymnastic pyramid, which Long said was supposed to be much larger, but became too heavy.

The installation will be on display at the library through the end of April. Some of the monkeys may stay on into May, he said, depending on the needs of the library.

The library typically has the capacity for 36 displays a year, said Adam Jackman, who schedules the art installations for the Gig Harbor branch of the Pierce County Library. He said the art installations are usually on display for one month. The artists are responsible for installing and removing their work.

Artists made many of the sock monkeys from long socks, such as this one made from breast cancer awareness socks. Photo courtesy of Bennie Weeks

“We have two display cases for three-dimensional items, and then our walls for hanging displays,” Jackman said. “A main initiative of the library is enjoyment, and every time someone of any age walks in, stops in their tracks, and says, “whoa,” I think we have furthered that goal. We were very lucky George decided to share these (sock monkeys) with us and the community.”

Ummm …. what are sock monkeys?

Sock Monkeys have come in and out of popularity since the 1950s. Long said some visitors to his displays may not have ever seen one.

His goal is not necessarily to promote sock monkeys, but to show children (and adults) that it is fun to be creative.

“My real push was to try and expose children to the creative process and show them how they all have that part of their brain, and that they can learn how to use it and keep working with it,” he said. “You can create something and be happy with it, and it’s yours. Whether a little piece of art that you tape to your wall or whatever.”

Each installation he has done over the years takes days of planning, he said. He visits the site, then begins planning where he wants to place each monkey.

“It took me four days to put up the displays (at the library),” Long said, “and then there’s work you don’t see, like figuring out how to put it up. I engineered how to hang them, and I got two young guys to go up 14-foot ladders and hook them, and I made a big string of monkeys that was too heavy, so I had to break it down, and redo it.”

Sock monkeys form an acrobatic pyramid in one display at the Gig Harbor Library. Photo by Marsha Hart

It’s just part of the process, he said.

“I’ve done enough installations to know, don’t plan too much,” Long said. “I saw the library maybe five times and figured out how I wanted to do it. I had one more station and I ran out of monkeys.”

Local artists interested in showing their work at the library can fill out an exhibit form here.

The Sock Monkey Project installation

Where: The Gig Harbor Pierce County Library, 4424 Point Fosdick Drive

When: Now through April 30, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Cost: Free

George Long is the creator of The Sock Monkey Project, on display now at the Gig Harbor Library. Photo courtesy of Jahni Lynn Photo