Jane Ingram Allen will be in Taiwan from April 7 to June 7, 2016, curating international environmental art projects.  The artists Jane selected for the two projects will be coming to Taiwan for 25-day residencies in Cheng Long Wetlands, Cheng Long village in rural Yunlin County, Taiwan, and in the northeastern port city of Keelung, Taiwan, at the National Museum of Marine Science & Technology. For more information about the Cheng Long Wetlands art project check out the Blog at http://artproject4wetland.wordpress.com and for the Keelung International Marine Environmental Art Project, please visite the Museum’s website at http://www.nmmst.gov.tw and the new Blog for the Keelung project at http://nmmstartproject.wordpress.com

The 5 artists Jane selected for the Cheng Long Wetlands International Environmental Art Project will come to Cheng Long village from April 7 to May 2 to create their site specific artworks using natural and recycled biodegradable materials and sited in the Cheng Long Wetlands.  The 2016 Cheng Long artists are Chris Lee – Taiwan; Claudia Aranmovich – Argentina; Elena Redelli – Italy; Justin Tyler Tate – Canada; and Amarsaikhan Namsraijav – Mongolia.  Omar’s sketch Justin’s sketch   Elena’s sketch  Claudia’s sketch  Chris’s sketch

The 7 artists chosen for the Keelung international marine environmental art project in 2016 are Ester Fabregas – Spain; Li Yi-shuian – Taiwan; Patrick Demazeau – France; Regine Neumann – Germany; Steve McPherson – UK and Tsuneo Sekiguchi – Japan.  They will be creating outdoor sculpture installations about the ocean environment around the National Museum of Marine Science & Technology from May 12 to June 6, 2016.

  Ester’s sketch  Yi-shuian’s sketch  Patrick’s sketch Piotr’s sketch  Regine’s sketch  Steve’s sketch  Tsuneo’s sketch

Between the two projects Jane is curating in Taiwan, she will go to Bali for an artist in residency at the Bali Purnati Center for the Arts near Ubud on the island of Bali in Indonesia.  Jane did her papermaking art with plants from Bali during a residency there in 2009, and she will return to Bali Purnati from May 3 to May 11, 2016, to do some sketching and planning for new works.

Jane will go back to the USA on June 7, 2016 after the project in Keelung.  Keep checking this Blog for updates on the two projects in Taiwan and Jane’s own work in Bali.

 

Jane Ingram Allen finished her artist in residency project in Lancaster, CA, on Saturday March 12, 2016, with the installation of the Lancaster Eco-Quilt.  This public art project was completed during Jane’s one month artist-in-residency at the Lancaster Museum of Art & History, Cedar Center for the Arts.    

At a public ceremony on Saturday, local participants laid down the 20 squares of the handmade paper quilt created with community participation during the residency.  The Lancaster Eco-Quilt has seeds for wildflowers in the paper pulp and was placed on a prepared bed of soil.  A headboard and footboard of local willow branches was created by the artist with the help of local participants.  The quilt is in three colors and the gold poppy flowers in the quilt pattern have seeds for California poppies in the pulp.  In the blue parts of the quilt blocks there are seeds for California bluebells, and in the white parts there are seeds to grow white poppies and Baby’s Breath wildflowers.  Several children and families helped to install the Lancaster Eco-Quilt and stake down the handmade paper quilt with leaves from a dead Joshua Tree.  Here are some photos of the installation of the Lancaster Eco-Quilt.

  Here’s a photo of all the volunteers who helped install the Lancaster Eco-Quilt.  Thank you everyone!

The Lancaster Eco-Quilt will continue on view at Hull Park in Lancaster, California.  Hull Park is located on West 20th Street near the intersection of Avenue L-8.   Over time the handmade paper will dissolve into mulch and the wildflower seeds sprout and grow to bloom in the quilt pattern.  Local people will send Jane photos of the changes over time to post on this Blog.  Here are some photos showing the quilt being installed and the finished installation on March 12.  The photos here are by Timothy S. Allen (http://allentimphotos2.wordpress.com

Jane’s residency in Lancaster was supported by WEAD (Women Eco-Artist Dialog (www.weadartists.org) and the Lancaster Museum of Art & History, Cedar Center for the Arts (www.lancastermoah.org)

 

Jane Ingram Allen’s WEAD Artist in Residency Project in Lancaster, CA continues this Saturday, March 5, with a Public Workshop at the site for the Lancaster Eco-Quilt at Hull Park, 30th Street West and Avenue J-8, Lancaster. The Public Workshop will be to build a headboard and footboard for the “flower bed” using local branches and all natural local materials. The Workshop will be Saturday, May 5 from 11AM to 1 PM and then from 3 PM to 5 PM at Hull Park.

You can see the “bed” is already taking shape as the park’s maintenance crew took up the grass at the selected site and put in some soil to shape a bed and then erected a temporary fence around the area to protect it until the artwork is installed. Come out this Saturday to help build the headboard and footboard using local branches and all biodegradable natural materials.

Everyone is also invited to come out to Hull Park next Saturday, March 12, 2-4 PM to help install the handmade paper quilt with seeds in the pulp to grow California Poppies, California Blue Bells and Baby’s breath wildflowers.  The Lancaster Eco-Quilt is all biodegradable and will produce new life as the all biodegradable quilt dissolves and the seeds start to sprout, grow and bloom.

Keep looking at this Blog to see more photos and posts about Jane’s artist in residency  project with the Lancaster Museum of Art and History Cedar Center for the Arts and WEAD (Women Eco Artists Dialog at http://www.weadartists.org). Photos here are by Timothy S. Allen (http://allentimphotos2.wordpress.com).

The Lancaster MOAH Cedar Arts Center and WEAD artist in residency project in Lancaster, CA, continues with community participation in papermaking workshops to create the quilt block for the Lancaster Eco-Quilt. The blocks are each 20 inches square and composed of 4 sheets of 8-1/2 x 11 inch pieces of paper.  Each sheet of paper has an image of a California golden poppy flower with a blue background. The borders of the quilt are 4 inches wide and made with a natural off-white paper pulp made from local plants mixed with some abaca. The yellow-orange poppy paper made from local plants mixed with some abaca and dyed with non-toxic liquid fiber reactive dye has seeds for California golden poppies and a mix of Southwest yellow wildflowers in it. The blue colored pulp made from recycled blue jeans and mixed with local plant pulps and dyed abaca pulp has seeds for California desert bluebells and a mix of Southwest blue flowers in it. The white borders have seeds for Baby’s Breath (small white flowers) and for Ivory Castle Poppies, a white poppy.

Here are some photos of making the Eco-Quilt squares. The design is made with stencils on the paper moulds, and we have 3 different design stencils. Each quilt block is unique as people decorated them in different ways and combined the three stencils in their own way. The public workshop on Saturday, Feb. 27 was a fun day of papermaking for the public to help create the quilt blocks for the Lancaster Eco-Quilt. We even had some parents and children come in to make some paper for the quilt squares.

This coming Saturday, May 5, Jane will have a public workshop at Hull Park in Lancaster, at the site near the children’s play area where the Lancaster Eco-Quilt will be installed. Hull Park is located on West 30th Street and Avenue J-8 in Lancaster. Everyone is invited to come to Hull Park this Saturday March 5 from 11AM to 1 PM and 3PM to 5 PM for a public workshop to help make the headboard and footboard for the “flower bed” where the Lancaster Eco Quilt will be installed. The public installation ceremony for the Lancaster Eco-Quilt will be on Saturday, March 14, 2 – 4 PM at Hull Park in Lancaster, CA.

Check back here to see more photos and get updates on the progress of the Lancaster Eco-Quilt. The photos here are by Timothy S. Allen (http://allentimphotos2.wordpress.com).

Jane Ingram Allen’s month-long residency in Lancaster is sponsored by WEAD (Women Eco Artists Dialog: http://www.weadartists.com), and this is a project of the Lancaster Museum of Art & History, Cedar Center for the Arts, Lancaster, CA (www.lancastermoah.org ).

This week I have been busy using local plants to make handmade paper for the Lancaster Eco-Quilt Project sponsored by WEAD (www.weadartists.org) and the Lancaster Museum of Art & History. For more information about programs and exhibitions at MOAH and Cedar Center for the Arts in Lancaster, CA, take a look at the website for the Museum: http://lancastermoah.org and the Cedar Arts Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/MOAHCEDAR

The plants here in the “high desert” area are challenging to use for hand papermaking, but the results are exciting and surprising. I am making a recipe book with samples for the plants I have used for papermaking in Lancaster. These are the local plants I have used for papermaking so far:
Joshua tree – leaves

California fan palm – leaves

Red Yucca – leaves

Eucalyptus, red gum – bark

California Juniper, Western white cedar – bark

Needle Grass – leaves

Rabbit brush – whole plant (only bark is useable)

On Saturday Feb. 20, I conducted a workshop with public participation for learning how to make paper from local plants. People enjoyed the process including gathering some local plants, cooking the plant materials, beating the cooked and washed plant material to a pulp with wooden hammers and then using a kitchen blender to finish the pulp preparation. The prepared pulp was then put into a tub of water, and participants made samples of the different plant papers. The samples of the local plant paper will be for the Lancaster papermaking plants recipe book and also used for the border of the eco-quilt.

Here are some photos of the process of making paper with local plants and the Saturday 2/20  workshop at Cedar Arts. The photos were taken by my husband Timothy S. Allen (http://allentimphotos2.wordpress.com).

Beating fan palm leaves after cooking and wasshing

This Saturday, Feb. 27 from 11AM to 1 PM and 3PM to 5PM,  I will hold another public workshop at Cedar Center for the Arts, Lancaster, CA. Participants will make handmade paper quilts blocks for the Lancaster Eco-Quilt.   Here is a photo of the sketch for the Lancaster Eco-Quilt with the blocks featuring California poppies.  

For more information about the workshop and this project, see the Facebook page for MOAH Cedar – https://www.facebook.com/MOAHCEDAR

Check back here for more posts about the Lancaster Eco-Quilt project and photos of my WEAD Artist in Residency Project at MOAH Cedar, Lancaster, CA. The project concludes with the installation of the Eco-Quilt on Saturday March 12.

This year I am again curating the marine environment art project in Keelung, Taiwan. The deadline for application to the National Museum of Marine Science & Technology International Environmental Art Project is February 15, 2016! Artists from all over the world are invited to send a proposal for a site-specific outdoor sculpture that will be about the future of our oceans. Artworks can be made with recycled and natural materials and you can look at the Museum’s website to see more about what to send me for your application by Feb. 15. The selected artists will come to Taiwan from May 12 to June 6, 2016 and create their works in Keelung, Taiwan. Selected artists receive a stipend of NT30,000 (about US$2000), round trip airfare, accommodations, food, and volunteer help. For more information see the website at http://artproject2016.nmmst.gov.tw
and email me with any questions.

You can see the artworks and read more about the 6 artworks created last year in Keelung if you scroll down the page and click on each of the red flags on the map of the area around the NMMST in Keelung, Taiwan.

Thank you, Jane Ingram Allen, Curator Email: nmmstartproject@gmail.com

Announcing my selection as the first WEAD (Women Eco-Artists Dialogue) Artist in Residence in cooperation with the Museum of Art & History, Lancaster, CA, from Feb. 12 to March 13, 2016. I will be going to Lancaster in southern California, about 1 hour north of Los Angeles in the Antelope Valley, to work at the Museum of Art & History’s Cedar Center for the Arts to create a site-specific environmental art installation with local participation during this one month artist in residency.

My art installation will make use of handmade paper from local plants, seeds for local wildflowers and other natural and biodegradable materials and consist of an “Eco-Art Quilt” that will be sited in a public area (perhaps the Prime Desert Woodland Preserve in Lancaster) and that will evolve over time with the paper quilt dissolving into compost and the wildflower seeds in the pulp sprouting and growing and blooming to make a living blooming bed cover. This installation will be part of the WEAD (www.weadartists.org) program in environmental art cooperating with the Museum of Art & History in Lancaster, CA.  The theme for the WEAD group show at MOAH and this residency is “Smaller Footprints” focused on what we can do to prevent more global warming and climate change.
My planned installation to be created in Lancaster will be somewhat like other projects I have done around the world using seeds in handmade paper and working with nature as a partner to make changing and evolving artworks that contribute to the earth and improve the environment. Here are some photos of an eco-art quilt installation I made in a city park of Sumter, SC in 2003, showing it evolving over about 6 months:

I will be looking for local people in the Lancaster area to help with the papermaking from local plants, making the quilt block squares, creating a headboard and footboard for the bed and installing the quilt as well as helping to care for it as it evolves.

Keep checking this Blog for more information and photos of my artist in residency project in Lancaster, CA, Feb. 12 to March 13, 2016.