I am happy to announce that I have been invited to create a “living quilt” art installation in Steckborn, Switzerland, in April 2021. This art project is with Haus zur Glovke, an alternative art center in Steckborn, a small town located on Lake Constance in the northeastern part of Switzerland. Haus zur Glocke Curator Judit Villager included some of my handmade paper “Site Maps” in an exhibition last November at Haus zur Glocke, and she learned about my current series of “living quilts”. outdoor public art installations with a handmade paper quilt having seeds for wildflowers in the pulp to grow and bloom over time and become a living artwork. Judit has invited me to create a Living Quilt for Steckborn that will be installed in a public park. I first met Judit when I selected her as an artist for an outdoor sculpture exhibition I curated in Taiwan in 2007. I am hoping to be able to travel to Switzerland this April to see Judit again and to install the handmade paper quilt and create a headboard and footboard for the “bed” in Steckborn. This all depends on how it goes with the virus and travel restrictions. If travel is not possible, I will be mailing the handmade paper quilt with seeds in the pulp to Steckborn with installation instructions, and then I will participate virtually from here in Santa Rosa, California.

I will be posting on this Blog links to videos from my Santa Rosa studio showing how the quilt is being made and how it will be put together to cover an outdoor flower bed about 8 feet x 10 feet (244 cm x 305 cm). The design for “Living Quilt for Steckborn” is based on a traditional pattern sometimes called “Delectable Mountains” or “Peaks and Valleys”. This is a traditional American quilt pattern that has connections to the perilous journeys of pioneers across the mountains of North America to settle in the new parts of the country. I also wanted to reference the mountain peaks visible in the distance around Lake Constance and also to recall the peaks and valleys we have all experienced in 2020 with the pandemic and Covid 19. For the Steckborn installation I will make a handmade paper quilt with seeds for wildflowers in the pulp in the same colors and pattern. I am making the handmade paper “quilt” here in my Santa Rosa studio and plan to share videos of my process and progress on the “quilt” for people in Steckborn and around the world. I have selected seeds for wildflowers that are common in America and Switzerland for this “living quilt”. After the quilt is installed in Steckborn, the handmade paper will dissolve into mulch to nourish the earth, and the seeds will sprout and grow into a living, blooming artwork in several months. The quilt will be installed in April in a Steckborn park, and the seeds should start to sprout and grow in several weeks and bloom all Spring and Summer. I hope that watching the seeds sprout and wildflowers start to grow and bloom will provide joy and hope for a better 2021.

Here is an image I found on the internet of a traditional quilts in the “Delectable Mountains” or “Peaks and Valleys” pattern.

Here is a sketch of my design for “Living Quilt for Steckborn” and it will be in blue, yellow, red and white handmade paper with seeds for wildflowers in those same colors in the pulp.

I am using stencils on my 8.5″ x 11″ papermaking molds to create this pattern and join the pieces of paper with natural cotton string put between the layers…this means I have to do 8 pieces of paper for each of these units that are about 17″ wide and 22 inches long. My “quilt” will also have a 5″ border around the outside of the whole quilt.

Keep watching this Blog to see more photos of the Steckborn “quilt” in progress and also some links to videos that I will post on YouTube to show me creating it in my Santa Rosa, California studio. This is one unit of the quilt made and dried, and I will make 25 of these!