I have just finished creating the Taiwan Fulbright Foundation 60th Anniversary Site Map artwork – Making Connections – that I was invited to make for the  60th anniversary of the Fulbright program of educational and cultural exchanges between the US and Taiwan.  I was a Fulbright Scholar artist in residence in Taiwan in 2004-04 and 2004-05 and continued working full time as an artist in Taiwan until moving back to the USA in 2012.  The 60th anniversary celebration in Taiwan will be June 1 and 2 with an international symposium.  My artwork will be hung in the library and conference space at the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange (Fulbright Taiwan) headquarters building at 2F, 45, Yanping S. Rd. Taipei 10043.

These photos show the finished mixed-media artwork hanging in the small studio space here in Santa Rosa, CA.   The artwork is created from handmade paper using plants of Taiwan and the USA that I made in residencies over the past few years in Taiwan and the USA.  I use natural string and acrylic paint and collage on the handmade paper, and the artwork will fold up like a map at the string parts for easy shipment and storage.  The artwork represents a map of Taiwan and the USA joined together with strings, and there are many images of the cultures of the two countries and the history of the Fulbright program connecting Taiwan and USA.   I will mail the artwork to Taipei later this week and hope to receive some photos soon from the staff at Fulbright Taiwan so we can see the artwork hanging in Taiwan.  These photos were taken by Timothy S. Allen (http://allentimphotos2.wordpress.com)

During the month of April I am busy creating a new commissioned artwork to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Fulbright Foundation in Taiwan. The Fulbright program that began in 1957 has sent thousands of US scholars all over the world, and thousands of scholars from other countries have come to the United States for cultural and academic exchange.  During its 60 years Taiwan’s Fulbright Foundation has financed over 1600 Taiwan grantees to the U.S. and 1400 U.S. grantees to Taiwan.

In 20003-04 and in 2004-05 I was a Fulbright Scholar artist in residence in Taiwan.   My Fulbright research project was to make my handmade paper art with plants of Taiwan, and I traveled all over the country doing this and creating what I call “site maps” of Taiwan and different regions, cities and counties in Taiwan.  Each “site map” is a mixed media artwork created from handmade paper I made using local plants.  After two years on the Fulbright grant in Taiwan I stayed and continued my work in Taiwan as an independent artist for 8 more years.  I have used over 187 different plants of Taiwan to make handmade paper for my artworks.  This photo show the paper mulberry tree plant growing like a weed in Taiwan.  It is one of the world’s best plants for papermaking.

My Fulbright Taiwan 60th Anniversary Site Map will depict a map of the USA joined with a map of Taiwan.  The USA part is made with handmade paper from US plants created at my artist-in-residency projects in several states of America during the past 12 years.  The Taiwan part is created with handmade paper from plants of Taiwan made during my 8 plus years working in Taiwan from 2004-2012. The two map artworks will be joined with threads to literally and symbolically show the ties of friendship uniting the two countries and celebrating the 60 years of the Fulbright program in Taiwan.  The artwork will feature collage and painting of the natural world and the cultures of both countries and also include many photos of Fulbright exchange experiences over the 60 years.

Here are some in progress photos of the Fulbright Taiwan Anniversary Site Map artwork I am creating in the small studio I have rented for the month of April in Santa Rosa, CA.  I will post photos of the finished artwork on this Blog before I ship it to Taipei to arrive before June 1.

My Fulbright Taiwan Anniversary Site Map will be installed in Taipei at the Taiwan Fulbright Foundation headquarters on June 1 and 2 for the 60th anniversary celebration.  For more information about the Taiwan Fulbright Foundation’s 60th Anniversary Celebration on June 1 and 2, see the website at http://www.fulbright.org.tw/60years/

This summer I will teach a Workshop in Papermaking and Mixed Media Art at Sitka Center for Art & Ecology on July 24 and 25, 2017. Sitka Center is located on the central Oregon coast in Otis, Oregon, and offers classes and residencies for artists in a variety of media.  My class titled “Sitka Spruce Papermaking and Mixed Media Art” will focus on the beautiful and majestic Sitka Spruce trees that are unique to Pacific Coast forests and abundant around the Sitka Center. We will use bark from fallen trees for making handmade paper and incorporate other aspects of the tree in mixed media works. For more information and to register, see the website at http://www.sitkacenter.org
You may also want contact me by email for more details at info@janeingramallen.com
Hope to see you at the Sitka workshop this July 24 and 25.

The artwork shown here is an installation I made as an artist in residence from Oct. 2014 to Jan. 2015 at Sitka Center for Art & Ecology.  I used Sitka Spruce bark and Sitka Sedge leaves for the handmade paper and dried my paper on the bark of living Sitka Spruce trees to get the embossed bark pattern.  I made 7 “trees”, and each is about 15 – 18 feet tall.  This installation can be suspended from the ceiling in many different configurations.

I was the curator again this year for the Cheng Long Wetlands International Environmental Art Project that I started in 2010 in the small village of Cheng Long in southwestern Taiwan. For this the 8th year of the project that focuses on environmental issues and the local community we had 180 proposals from artists in 55 different countries around the world. Here is the list of the selected artists:

Annechien Meier and Gert-Jan Gerlach – Netherlands

Inga Shalvashvili – Georgia

Piotr Wesolowski – Poland 

Rob Mulholland – UK (Scotland)

Hui-yi Tsai – Taiwan

 Jane Liou – Taiwan

 Cheng Long Villagers Team

Thank you again to all the artists who applied this year. I enjoyed reviewing all the proposals, and it was a very difficult job to select only 7 from so many good proposals. I hope many of you will try again next year.

Please look at the Blog at http://artproject4wetland.wordpress.com to see the artworks created this year in Cheng Long Wetlands for the theme of “Take Action – Live with Change”.  Sketches of the selected artworks will be posted there soon.  This year the selected artists will be in Cheng Long from April 13 to May 8. We are hoping for a great year with many interesting artworks and lots of enthusiasm from the community and the elementary school children in Cheng Long.

This art project is open to international artists with an Open Call each year, and selected artists receive a 25-day residency in Taiwan with a stipend of $2000, air ticket, food, accommodations and volunteer help as well as access to free natural and recycled materials.

“Every Drop Counts” installation by Jane Ingram Allen collaborating with Eco-Art Matters Class at Laney College, Oakland, CA, exhibited in October 2016 at Bioneers Conference, Marin Civic Center, San Rafael, CA

Wishing a New Year of happiness, health and success to everyone!  This year more than ever we need to pay attention to our environment and preserve, protect and sustain our earth.  Water is the source of all life and needs our global attention.

Just a reminder that the deadline for sending application materials for the 2017 Cheng Long Wetlands International Environmental Art Project is January 20, 2017. This will be the 7th year of the annual outdoor sculpture project that I curate in Cheng Long village, Yunlin County, Taiwan. This year the invited artists will come to stay and create their site specific works from April 13 – May 8. Selected artists receive a US$2000 stipend, airfare, accommodations, food and volunteer help. The theme this year is “Take Action – Live with Change” and artists will work with local school children and volunteers to create large scale outdoor sculptures with natural and recycled materials that are eco-friendly and encourage sustainability and taking action to live with climate change. I will be reviewing emailed entries and selecting the 2017 artists by Feb. 20. For more information about what to submit see the Blog at http://artproject4wetland.wordpress or email me at allenrebeccajanei@gmail.com
Hope to see your entry soon!

“Water Core” by Roger Rigorth at the 2015 Cheng Long Wetlands International Environmental Art Project

My interactive wall installation titled “Every Drop Counts” is now up at the 2016 Bioneers Conference, Marin Center Exhibit Hall, San Rafael, California. This installation is part of the WEAD Women Eco Artist Dialog (www.weadartists.org) exhibition at the Bioneers annual conference about environmental issues. See the website about the conference at http://conference.bioneers.org

My installation at the 2016 Bioneers conference will be on view to the public Oct. 20-23, 2016,  at the Marin Center, San Rafael, CA.

The hundreds of handmade paper water drops for the installation were created in a papermaking workshop I offered at Laney College on Oct. 11 with students in the Eco Art Matters class of Andree Thompson and Sharon Siskin. The blue water drops are made from recycled blue jean pulp, and there are seeds for blue wildflowers in the pulp.  Visitors are invited to make a pledge to save water and then take a “drop” from the installation home with them to plant, water and watch it grow over time.

This installation differs each time it is installed according to the site and the public participation and interaction. It was first created in 2008 during my residency at Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts in Taipei, Taiwan, and also shown also at Tenri Gallery, NYC, in 2010, and in Geneva, Switzerland at the 2015 International Paper/Fiber Biennial.

“Every Drop Counts’ will also be in an exhibition at Laney College, Oakland, CA, later, and I will post information about that exhibition on this Blog.  The installation in San Rafael, CA at the 2016 Bioneers Conference is up through Oct. 23. These photos are by my husband Timothy S. Allen (http://allentimphotos2.wordpress.com)