This past week I was teaching two workshops at Sitka Center for Art & Ecology in Otis, Oregon, and had an opportunity to visit my art project done last year “Living Quilt for Nestucca Valley” created with students in the Summer Youth Art Program of the Sitka Center in cooperation with the K-12 School and students from the Nestucca Valley school district. I was the Guest Artist for this program and worked at the school for two weeks in August 2021, with the students to create and install this work before going back to my home in Santa Rosa, CA.
It is great to see how this “quilt” has changed over time and to see so many wildflowers that were in the handmade paper quilt blocks still blooming! The photos below were taken by my husband Timothy S. Allen when we visited the Nestucca Vally School and viewed the art installation in the school garden on Monday, August 8, 2022.
“Living Quilt for Nestucca Valley” shown on August 8, 2022, photo by Timothy S. AllenLiving Quilt for Nestucca Valley one year later!Another view of Living Quilt for Nestucca Valley after one year.Living Quilt for Nestucca Valley on August 8, 2022, showing detail of blue bachelor buttons and golden poppies blooming
The Living Quilt for Nestucca Valley was installed on August 13, 2021. I have also attached one photo below of the quilt when it was first installed with the handmade paper quilt blocks each having seeds in the paper pulp in the same colors and patterns in the design of fish, waves and trees. Hopefully the wildflower seeds will disperse again this Fall and come back in the Spring of 2023 with more blooms. For more about the Living Quilt for Nestucca Valley, see this link to an article from Sept. 2021, in ART NEWS: https://www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/jane-ingram-allen-living-quilts-1234603170/
Jane Ingram Allen, Living Quilt for Nestucca Valley, Cloverdale, Oregon (in school garden of K-12 Nestucca Valley School) shown at installation on August 13, 2021, 8 feet x 10 feet x 5 feet, mixed media art installation of handmade paper, dye, thread, soil, boards, branches, created with participants in Summer Youth Art Program of Sitka Center for Art & Ecology, photo by Timothy S. Allen
My outdoor public art installation in Steckborn, Switzerland, that was installed on April 14, 2021, with Haus zur Glocke Art Center in the town of Steckborn on the shores of Lake Constance, is beginning to bloom! The handmade paper quilt had seeds for wildflowers in the pulp in the same colors and patterns. Tiny white flowers (maybe Baby’s Breath) are showing up now, and there is a lot of lush green foliage for other wildflowers. The different colors of the other wildflowers in this “living quilt” should start to bloom soon. I am happy to post these photos sent by Haus zur Glocke Director and Curator Judit Villliger on June 7, 2021.
I plan to make a slide show that will show the process of the “living quilt” in more detail after all the flowers bloom, maybe by mid summer. I will post the complete slide show on YouTube with a link from this Blog. Also, I will continue posting photos sent by Judit in coming weeks. A very big thank you to Judit and the staff at Haus zur Glocke for taking such good care of the Living Quilt and sending all of this great documentation.
Hope everyone is having a good summer. Now it is very hot and dry here in Northern California, and it looks like my “living quilt” installations in California are maybe finished for this year. They should come back again with blooms and new growth next Spring after our Winter rains.
“Bed” made and filled with dirt on April 12, 2021 for “Living Quilt for Steckborn”Installation of Living Quilt for Steckborn, on April 14, 2021Living Quilt for Steckborn on April 19, 2021Plants starting to grow and paper pulp disappearing as mulch on May 14, 2021Plants growing on May 23, 2021, and all the paper pulp has dissolved into the earth.Tiny white flowers starting to appear on June 7, 2021. Hope to see other blooms soon!
I am happy to announce that I have been invited to create a “living quilt” art installation in Steckborn, Switzerland, in April 2021. This art project is with Haus zur Glovke, an alternative art center in Steckborn, a small town located on Lake Constance in the northeastern part of Switzerland. Haus zur Glocke Curator Judit Villager included some of my handmade paper “Site Maps” in an exhibition last November at Haus zur Glocke, and she learned about my current series of “living quilts”. outdoor public art installations with a handmade paper quilt having seeds for wildflowers in the pulp to grow and bloom over time and become a living artwork. Judit has invited me to create a Living Quilt for Steckborn that will be installed in a public park. I first met Judit when I selected her as an artist for an outdoor sculpture exhibition I curated in Taiwan in 2007. I am hoping to be able to travel to Switzerland this April to see Judit again and to install the handmade paper quilt and create a headboard and footboard for the “bed” in Steckborn. This all depends on how it goes with the virus and travel restrictions. If travel is not possible, I will be mailing the handmade paper quilt with seeds in the pulp to Steckborn with installation instructions, and then I will participate virtually from here in Santa Rosa, California.
I will be posting on this Blog links to videos from my Santa Rosa studio showing how the quilt is being made and how it will be put together to cover an outdoor flower bed about 8 feet x 10 feet (244 cm x 305 cm). The design for “Living Quilt for Steckborn” is based on a traditional pattern sometimes called “Delectable Mountains” or “Peaks and Valleys”. This is a traditional American quilt pattern that has connections to the perilous journeys of pioneers across the mountains of North America to settle in the new parts of the country. I also wanted to reference the mountain peaks visible in the distance around Lake Constance and also to recall the peaks and valleys we have all experienced in 2020 with the pandemic and Covid 19. For the Steckborn installation I will make a handmade paper quilt with seeds for wildflowers in the pulp in the same colors and pattern. I am making the handmade paper “quilt” here in my Santa Rosa studio and plan to share videos of my process and progress on the “quilt” for people in Steckborn and around the world. I have selected seeds for wildflowers that are common in America and Switzerland for this “living quilt”. After the quilt is installed in Steckborn, the handmade paper will dissolve into mulch to nourish the earth, and the seeds will sprout and grow into a living, blooming artwork in several months. The quilt will be installed in April in a Steckborn park, and the seeds should start to sprout and grow in several weeks and bloom all Spring and Summer. I hope that watching the seeds sprout and wildflowers start to grow and bloom will provide joy and hope for a better 2021.
Here is an image I found on the internet of a traditional quilts in the “Delectable Mountains” or “Peaks and Valleys” pattern.
a traditional quilt made with the “Delectable Mountains” pattern
Here is a sketch of my design for “Living Quilt for Steckborn” and it will be in blue, yellow, red and white handmade paper with seeds for wildflowers in those same colors in the pulp.
sketch for Living Quilt for Steckborn by Jane Ingram Allen
I am using stencils on my 8.5″ x 11″ papermaking molds to create this pattern and join the pieces of paper with natural cotton string put between the layers…this means I have to do 8 pieces of paper for each of these units that are about 17″ wide and 22 inches long. My “quilt” will also have a 5″ border around the outside of the whole quilt.
Keep watching this Blog to see more photos of the Steckborn “quilt” in progress and also some links to videos that I will post on YouTube to show me creating it in my Santa Rosa, California studio. This is one unit of the quilt made and dried, and I will make 25 of these!
one block of the Living Quilt for Steckborn completed
Just wanted to let everyone know that the Zoom program I did this past Wednesday, July 8, 2020, for Yolo Arts “Knowledge at Noon” is available to watch anytime online at this link: https://yoloarts.org/public-programs/
The program goes over my process of making paper from local plant materials and creating my handmade paper art at several different artist in residency projects in Taiwan and different countries as well as in the US. Hope you get a chance to see it and let me know what you think.
I am continuing to work in my studio here in our garage in Santa Rosa, CA, and I hope to be able to go out for other art projects later in this year or next. I am doing some individual consulting and one-on-one papermaking in my studio now. Let’s keep in touch by email at least. I look forward to hearing from you. Take care and best wishes, Jane
In this time of the Coronavirus quarantine, it is great to see that my “Living Quilt for Newnan” art installation is blooming again this Spring, for its third season. This artwork was installed August 29, 2017 on the grounds of the children’s museum in Newnan, Georgia. Earlier this week I received some amazing photos by email from people in Newnan, and this time the flowers blooming from the “living quilt” are brilliant red poppies. These beautiful red flowers are certainly a bright sign in these dark days of the virus.
The red poppies in my Newnan art installation came from some pretty special vintage seeds! The red poppy seeds that I included in the quilt were some that a distant relative of mine who lives in Newnan (Pick Parks) had stored in his freezer for over 20 years. He gave me the seeds when I was in Newnan for my artist in residency project at Newnan Art Rez (www.newnanartists.org). Pick told me that his father had saved the poppy seeds over the years, and that his father was originally given the seeds by a Mr. Smith in Newnan. Pick said that his father loved the red poppies and planted them all over their fields every year and saved the seeds. Pick’s father passed on a few years ago, and Pick was happy to have these seeds used in my “Living Quilt for Newnan” art project. When Pick gave me the envelope of red poppy seeds that he took from his freezer, none of us knew if the seeds would really germinate or not, but I put all of the seeds he gave me into the red parts of the Newnan “living quilt”. It is wonderful to see them blooming there so profusely this Spring, and the people in Newnan plan to save the seeds from these poppies so that they can continue bringing joy.
These photos of the red poppies were taken by Bette Hickman and Beth Neely in Newnan the first week in May 2020.
The photos below show how the Living Quilt for Newnan looked when it was installed on August 29, 2017. I chose a house motif for the Newnan quilt design because Newnan is known as the “city of homes” and famous for many beautiful antebellum homes. The quilt was made with handmade paper and had seeds for wildflowers in the pulp in the same colors and patterns. In 2018 and 2019 other wildflowers in other colors appeared along with a few red poppies, but this year it is great to see such a profusion of red poppies. It shows us nature’s powers of rejuvenation, and that Nature just continues on in spite of what we do.
the finished quilt installation Aug. 29, 2017 in Newnan, GA
Today my husband Tim and I went by the site of my Living Quilt for Santa Rosa installation at Rincon Ridge Park in the Fountaingrove area of Santa Rosa, CA. This public artwork was supported by a grant from the City of Santa Rosa as part of a call to artists to respond to the devastating wildfires of October 2017. It was great to see this evidence of the regenerative powers of nature and rejoice in the bright golden poppies, white linen poppies and small blue forget-me-nots and white allysium blooms.
These photos taken by my husband Timothy S. Allen show the art installation on April 13, 2020. It is great to see this artwork surviving and thriving in these difficult times.
Here is a link to a youtube slide show about the artwork: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rfH104j92o The video shows this artwork in all its phases as the handmade paper quilt with seeds for wildflowers in the pulp changes over time into a living bloom wildflower bed.
The headboard and footboard for the “bed” that was woven with trimmed tree branches, has blown over and been repaired and set back in place two different times after it blew down in storms with 70 mph+winds. Go out when you can to see the flowers in your neighborhood.
Here is a link to the slide show showing the transformation of my installation “Living Quilt for Santa Rosa” from its installation on Nov. 25, 2018 to blooming wildflowers in April, May and June 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rfH104j92o
My Living Quilt for Santa Rosa installation continues to bloom. It is very hot now in Santa Rosa, over 100 degrees Fahrenheit and it’s also very dry now. Some of the flowers are now making seeds and the plants will hopefully come again next season. Here are some photos of the installation taken this past weekend showing blooming cornflowers and other flowers going to seed. Somehow one red poppy also appeared in this installation!
This artwork was installed on Nov. 25, 2018, and it is located at Rincon Ridge Park in the Fountaingrove area of Santa Rosa, CA. I received a grant from the City of Santa Rosa to do this art project that involves handmade paper and seeds for wildflowers with participation by community volunteers. Check posts from November 2018 and following in this Blog for more information and photos of the changing over time installation. All photos are by my husband Timothy S. Allen (allentimphotos2.wordpress.com).
My “Guns into Flowers” art installation that was installed on March 16 at South Natomas Community Center Park is starting to bloom. This art installation was created with the participation of art students at Natomas Charter School Academy of Performing and Fine Arts in Sacramento, CA. The installation consists of a handmade paper quilt with a gun motif pattern with seeds for wildflowers in the pulp. The art project raises awareness about gun violence and transforms the “guns” into flowers.
These photos show the first flowers starting to bloom. The weather has been very cooperative in Sacramento this Spring, and the plants are growing fast. We have even had some rare rain storms in May. These photos were taken on Friday, March 17 by Timothy S. Allen (http://allentimphotos2.wordpress.com)
Keep checking this Blog for more photos as the installation continues to change and the handmade paper “guns” transform into living blooming flowers.
A big thank you to the art teachers as Natomas Charter School, Jim Vetter and Chelsea Greninger, and to all the art students at the school who helped to make the quilt squares and borders for this project that I did during a three-weeks artist in residency at the school from Feb. 25 to March 17, 2019.
I started working as a visiting artist in residence on Monday, Feb. 25, at Natomas Charter School in Sacramento, CA. I am creating an outdoor public art installation titled “Guns into Flowers” with the students to raise awareness about gun violence in our schools and communities. We are making a handmade paper quilt with a gun motif and seeds for wildflowers in the pulp to transform the guns into flowers over time as the paper pulp dissolves into compost, and the seeds begin to sprout and grow into blooming flowers. Here is a photo of some of the students learning about papermaking and getting introduced to the project at Natomas Charter School Academy of Performing and Fine Arts. Photos to document the project are by Timothy S. Allen. Keep watching this Blog to see more photos and follow the progress as we continue with papermaking workshops this week and next to make the quilt squares. The official opening ceremony and laying down of the “quilt” will be on Saturday, March 16 at 2PM in the park at South Natomas Community Center, Sacramento, CA.
Jane Ingram Allen Art Projects 