As an art quilt maker, Karen has won various commissions, including one from the State Department to create a large wall piece for the US Embassy in Honduras. She constructed two quilts for the Minnesota-based Center for Victims of Torture, using pieces made by human rights activists all over the world in exile from their home countries. She's held two summer residencies at Cummington Community for the Arts in Massachusetts and one from the Grand Marais Art Colony in Minnesota. She enjoys solving costuming issues on a tight budget.  She has an avocational interest in global textiles, and has experience with sewing, serging, quilting, embroidering, knitting, smocking, and basic weaving. She currently volunteers sewing for Days for Girls, making washable, reusable menstrual hygiene kits which help girls stay in school around the world. Dedicated to keeping textiles out of landfills, she uses the scraps that work generates to make quilts for others, which are donated to hospitals and shelters around the Twin Cities.

Art Quilts

Journey of the Self #1: Taking the plunge

AKA "The Diver," this is the first in a series of quilts depicting various states of mind inherent in a creative life.   Piecing, applique, beading, hand quilting.   39" x 47"

Journey of the self #2: Pushing the river

Here, the three fundamental shapes representing an icon of the self are in a different energetic relationship than in the prior quilt.  Ribbons are inset into curved piecing, along with fabric confetti, hand quilting, and embroidery.    42" x 49"

Sweet sliver of silver

This quilt was commissioned by the US State Dept. for the Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.  "Tegucigalpa" means "silver hill" in an indigenous language. The quilt references that as well as multiple features of geography and culture.  Traditional blocks, Seminole piecing, hand quilted with Mayan hieroglyphs.   58" x 70"

QUILT FOR THE UNKNOWN CIVILIANS

This mourning quilt has toured internationally in an exhibition of quilts related to war and peace.  It is heavily hand quilted with motifs from various cultures which have suffered genocide:  African, Native American, Cambodian, Japanese, Jewish.  It is now in the collection of the Center for Victims of Torture in Minnesota. Pieced, hand quilted, stenciled.    42" x 45"

FEMAELSTROM

Spirals are used in many cultures as a symbol for female wisdom.  Here, they are disrupted in the center, and resolved in the side borders.  Curved piecing using Japanese fabrics, hand quilted.    46" x 39"

ARMOR OF THE MYSTIC WARRIOR

This quilt takes its title from one of the Japanese sashiko patterns used in the hand stitching.  It is one of five small playroom quilts Bovard donated to a shelter for battered women and children, to serve as comforters.     40" x 44"