Gathering crepe myrtle bark

Picking some mulberry branches to get the bark for papermaking

Gathering some cedar tree bark for papermaking in Newnan

Andrew McCabe, Newnan Art Rez board member, helping set up the tables for the outdoor studio at Gray Cottage.

Andrew McCabe, a Newnan Art Rez board member, came by to visit and looked at some paper sample books and helped us to set up the outdoor studio working area at Gray Cottage.

Dyeing some paper pulp red for the eco quilt

Adding some formation aid to the blue colored pulp vat.

Forming the yellow part of the quilt block

Making the red roofs part of the quilt block

Couching the blue part of the quilt block

Using a paint brush to pat down and make sure the various layers are joining together

Red wildflower seeds added to the red paper pulp for the eco quilt

The 20 inch quilt block close up. Here I am using a paint brush to pat down the layers and make sure it is all adhered to the sheet of non-woven interfacing before hanging it to dry

Bringing the quilt block inside to dry. It is a little windy outside sometimes in the afternoon so we bring them inside to dry on a clothesline overnight.

The first quilt block hanging outside the Gray Cottage to dry.

Bette Hickman, Newnan Art Rez board member, looking at a quilt block drying inside the Gray Cottage

My sister in law Judy Berry beating twigs from a paper mulberry tree to get the bark for papermaking in Newnan. Many of my family members came to Newnan, and we had a family reunion!

My sister-in-law Tina Ingram forming a layer for a Newnan eco-quilt block

White and yellow layers forming the eco-quilt block in Newnan

Adding a blue layer for the Newnan eco quilt

sketch of the quilt block design for the Newnan Eco-quilt

I am continuing my residency with Newnan Art Rez (www.newnanartist.org),and these photos by my husband Timothy S. Allen tell the story of what is happening. We are continuing to make blocks for the handmade paper “eco-quilt” in a house pattern that will be put on the prepared bed of soil on August 31 in Newnan at a site near the corner of College and Temple next to the Veteran’s Park and the children’s museum (site of the old Male Academy in Newnan).  The handmade paper quilt contains seeds for wildflowers in the same colors as the pattern.  Over time as the all biodegradable handmade paper quilt dissolves into mulch, the seeds will sprout and grow and bloom as wildflowers to make a continually evolving public artwork in Newnan.

We are cooking and making paper pulp from several plants common in Newnan to add to the paper pulp: crepe myrtle bark, Eastern red cedar tree bark and red mulberry tree bark. Yesterday we gathered some magnolia tree bark, and we will start preparing it today.

Volunteers from the Master Gardener’s group in Newnan came to help yesterday and learn the process. Other community volunteers also came by in the afternoon to participate and observe the process of making the Newnan eco-quilt. We plan to make a 60 inch by 80 inch queen size bed quilt and need 12 of the 20 inch squares that are made from 4 sheets of paper that are in 4 layers each. So that means lots of papermaking! We are working outdoors in the carport and front porch area at Gray Cottage, 23 Clark Street in Newnan.
Come by and join in!

I will keep posting photos about the project, and more information about the dedication ceremony and installation of the “flower bed” for Newnan will be posted here soon. Keep watching this Blog to see the outcome of the project.

Photos here are by Timothy S. Allen (http://allentimphotos2.wordpress.com).

After arriving late Tuesday, I have had several days to get settled in and local materials and supplies I need to start making handmade paper from local plants and creating a Newnan Eco-Quilt installation.  We also set up an outdoor working area for the papermaking and cooking of the plant materials, and looked at several possible sites for the outdoor installation that will be a “flower bed” with a handmade paper quilt having seeds for wildflowers in the pulp that will change over time to be a living, blooming quilt after the handmade paper dissolves into mulch.  The Newnan quilt will have a house motif since Newnan is known as “the city of homes”.  The site we have decided on is at the corner of Temple and College Street and next to the Children’s Museum and Veteran’s Park.  It will be a great spot and should have many people passing by to take a look and enjoy the installation.  I also met the staff at the historical museum and many people at the University of West Georgia branch that is just behind the Gray Cottage.  I am hoping to get lots of participation from the university staff and students and from visitors to the museum.

I also gathered some plant materials at the historical museum grounds next door to the Gray Cottage where I am staying in Newnan as the artist in residence at Newnan Art Rez (http://newnanartist.org).  The plants I gathered are bark from Eastern Red Cedar trees, bark from crepe myrtle trees and bark from a huge red mulberry tree with some branches hanging down low enough to need trimming.  The bark from the cedar trees and the crepe myrtle flakes off naturally so there is no need to trim the trees.  I will also be looking for other plant materials to make paper in the Newnan area, and I will meet with some master gardeners on Tuesday.

Here are some photos of the past few days taken by my husband Timothy S. Allen who is with me for this residency in Newnan, GA.

sketch of house motif for paper quilt

meeting University of West Georgia staff in Newnan with Newnan Art Rez board member Bette Hickman

Talking about my handmade paper and flower seeds installation with staff at University of West Georgia and Bette Hickman

Looking at peeling bark on crepe myrtle trees with curator at the historical museum

Looking at the site for my handmade paper quilt installation at the Children’s Musuem grounds in Newnan

working in the studio on the design for the “house” quilt in Newnan

Bette Hickman, Newnan Art Rez Board Member, looking at my Taiwan Site Map hanging in the Newnan studio

I am now working in Newnan, Georgia, as artist in residence at Newnan Art Rez.  I arrived late in the evening on August 8, after a delayed flight and getting from the Atlanta airport to the city of Newnan, about 45 minutes southeast of Atlanta.

We are staying at the Gray Cottage, in downtown Newnan, and it is a great space with a studio room and lots of space.  My husband Tim came with me, and he will be taking lots of photos to document the Newnan art project.   Here is a photo Tim took yesterday of Gray Cottage.

I am now figuring out what I will create and getting started to work.  I plan to make a handmade paper quilt and am thinking to use a house theme, since Newnan is known as the “city of homes”.  The town is filled with many beautiful old Southern homes, and we look forward to the time here reconnecting with my Southern roots.  I have ancestors on both sides of my family who first settled in Newnan after coming to America in the 1700s and 1800s from Ireland and Scotland.  These photos show me working in the studio room on sketches for the “house” quilt idea.

I also hung a couple of older handmade paper artworks that I brought with me in the studio space at Newnan Art Rez.  Here you can see a Sitka Paper Quilt created in 2014 at my residency at Sitka Center for Art & Ecology, Otis, Oregon, and a Taiwan Site Map created in 2004 during my first Fulbright Scholar award artist in residency in Taiwan.

Today I plan to meet with some Newnan Art Rez volunteers and look for materials and supplies to start the hand papermaking activities in Newnan.  Hope I can find some interesting plants here to make paper.

Keep watching my Blog for more posts about my residency in Newnan from August 8 to Sept. 1, 2017.  The website for Newnan Art Rez is at http://www.newnanartist.org

I will be an artist in residency from August 8 to September 1, 2017 at Newnan Art Rez in Newnan, GA. The website for the residency is at http://www.newnanartists.org

In Newnan,  I will be doing an installation art project with handmade paper from local plant materials and create a new series of paper quilts with a contemporary interpretation of traditional Southern quilt patterns.  This photo shows my first paper quilts created at Sitka Center for Art & Ecology in Otis, Oregon, during my residency at  Sitka Center in 2013-14.  The quilts were inspired by seeing the many “hex signs” on the barns in the area around Sitka Center.

I also did a quilt-related installation in 2016 as an artist in residence at Lancaster Museum of Art & History, Lancaster, CA.  This photo shows the “Lancaster Eco Quilt installation.  The handmade paper quilt has seeds for local wildflowers in the handmade paper, and as the paper dissolves into compost the seeds will grow and bloom in the same pattern.

Newnan, a small city southwest of Atlanta, is where my ancestors settled before moving on to Alabama when they first came to the US from Scotland and Ireland.  Here is a photo showing the graves of my great great great grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Cole, on my father’s side in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Newnan, GA. 

I also learned that the ancestors on my mother’s side also settled in the Newnan area, and my great great great grandfather James Hutcheson built the Hutcheson/Redwine Plantation that is still standing and now a sort of museum.   For me this residency will be a chance to reconnect with my roots and to create new work using local materials and inspiration.

Newnan Art Rez is a relatively new residency program that aims to bring contemporary artists there to interact with the local artists and community people. During my residency I will also work with art students at the University of West Georgia. Keep watching here for photos and information about my artist in residency in Newnan, GA during the month of August.

On July 24 and 25, 2017, I will teach a class at Sitka Center for Art & Ecology in Otis, Oregon.  Sitka is located on the beautiful central coast of Oregon, and the studios are terrific. This will be the 3rd summer I have taught at the Sitka Center.  My class this year is July 24 and 25, and it will be two full days of intense papermaking and mixed media art using the Sitka Spruce trees growing there as inspiration and materials. I was so impressed with this wonderful material for papermaking, and it makes a rich dark brown paper.  We will make handmade paper from Sitka Spruce bark and also use the cones, needles and branches along with other materials for 2-D and 3-D mixed media artworks. Come join us for the class.

Here are 2 photos of me working at Sitka Center in 2013-14 when I was an artist in residence there creating handmade paper art from Sitka Spruce tree bark and other local plant materials.  I created an installation of 7 “trees” using Sitka Space bark paper and dried on the bark of Sitka Spruce trees.

To register or get more information see the Sitka Center website at http://www.sitkacenter.org

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.