My art installation “Living Quilt for Santa Rosa” is blooming again for the 4th season, 5 years after the devastating Tubbs wildfire swept through this area in Santa Rosa, CA. It is great to see the golden poppies and blue bachelor buttons blooming at the same time when this photo was taken on May 27, 2023. The white alyssum flowers have already bloomed earlier in the Spring this year. The handmade paper quilt was made with dyed handmade paper pulp containing seeds for wildflowers in the same colors and pattern. The quilt pattern used was a traditional one called “Flying Geese” and the geese were in blue pulp with seeds for bachelor buttons and the white background had seeds for alyssum flowers. The borders for this strip quilt were made with paper pulp dyed the bright yellow-orange of California poppies and had seeds for poppies in the pulp.

This artwork was installed on Nov. 29, 2018, the year after the devastating wildfire (Tubbs Fire) that severely affected the Fountain Grove area as well as other parts of Santa Rosa, California. This artwork was done with the support of a grant from the City of Santa Rosa that asked artists to respond to the fire. I created “Living Quilt for Santa Rosa” with community participation and installed it at Rincon Ridge Park, Rincon Ridge Drive and Fountaingrove Parkway in northeast Santa Rosa, CA. When we installed this work and made the headboard and footboard with volunteers, we were all wearing masks due to the smoke still in the air and the polluted soil. There was also not any water in the park since the underground pipes had all melted with the heat of the wildfires that moved through this area. You can see the skeletons of burned trees and almost no houses still standing in the 2018 photo. In the 2023 photo there are many new houses that have been rebuilt on the hill behind the installation, and many bushes and trees are green again since water pipes have been replaced, and this year there has been lots of rain in California. The headboard for the “bed” fell down and was recycled into the earth after about three years, and the footboard is also starting to decompose and leaning heavily. The flowers continue to reseed and come back each year as the “living quilt” lives on.

These photos were taken by my husband Timothy S. Allen, and it is great to be able to continue documenting my art installation as it changes over time.