Living Quilt for Steckborn was installed on April 17, 2021, in Steckborn, Switzerland, with many people attending the outdoor ceremony held at the site on the shores of Lake Constance. This public art installation was coordinated with the art center in Steckborn, Haus zur Glocke, and curator Judit Villiger. The public artwork was jointly sponsored by Haus zur Glocke and the city of Steckborn. It was a windy and cold day when the installation was done at 5PM on April 17 in Steckborn, but we hope the wildflower seeds in this handmade paper “living quilt” will sprout in the coming weeks as the days get warmer. Hopefully, many wildflowers in the same colors and pattern will appear in the “bed” in a few months.

Here are a few photos by photographer Kaspar Schweizer at the installation ceremony held with public participation and speeches by curator Judit Villiger and a Steckborn City Council member. Many people helped to lay down the 25 handmade paper squares of the quilt that was created by me in my Santa Rosa studio and mailed to Switzerland. The quilt design is in a traditional American quilt pattern called “Peaks and Valleys” or “Delectable Mountains” and was one in common use during the time of pioneers traveling to settle the Western part of the U.S. and going over many mountains and valleys to reach their new homes. This pattern also refers to the landscape of Switzerland, since in Steckborn you can see the peaks of high mountains in the distance. This pattern also reminds us of the peaks and valleys of our lives during this pandemic time and expresses hopes for a better future. We can watch the regenerative power of nature as the seeds in the handmade paper pulp go into the soil on the prepared bed and sprout and grow into a blooming flower bed. Keep watching this Blog for more photos as the “Living Quilt for Steckborn” begins to transform.

I also have two of my handmade paper artworks at Haus zur Glocke gallery in their current indoor gallery exhibition “Opening the Atlas” which consists of indoor artworks by me and two other Swiss artists, Hannes Brunner, Berlin/Zürich and Claudia Schmid, Zürich. Check out the website at http://www.hauszurglocke.ch for more information in German about this exhibition and the Haus zur Glocke art center in Steckborn, Switzerland. My works in the current Haus Zur Glocke exhibition titled “Opening the Atlas” include “Daily Scrolls” created in 2020 as a response to the global pandemic. It contains rolled handmade paper scrolls with daily drawings and writings on them, and viewers are invited to take out a scroll, look at it, add something of their own to it and then return it to the wire recycled grid. The show also contains one of my handmade paper quilts “Sitka Paper Quilt 1” that I made during my 2014 artist in residency at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology in Otis, Oregon. The paper quilts were started after seeing many “hex” signs in traditional quilt patterns painted on barns in that part of Oregon. Here are photos of those two works that are in the “Seeing the Atlas” exhibition in Steckborn at Haus zur Glocke.

I will be posting other photos of “Living Quilt for Steckborn” as I receive them from people in Steckborn. There is also a box at the site of the “bed” installation for people in Steckborn to leave their wishes for a better 2021, and we will post some of those as they start to come in.