Pieper Bloomquist is one of nine winners of the 2024 Midwest Culture Bearers Award. This award celebrates artisans and folk arts practitioners whose work is rooted in cultural preservation and sharing knowledge with the next generation.
“I am a contemporary folk artist working in the traditions of Swedish bonadsmålning and dalmålning (kurbits) – the painted wall hangings that decorated the interiors of Swedish farmhouses in the 18th and 19th centuries. During this time, my great grandparents along with many other Swedes, immigrated to the Upper Midwest. The memory of these paintings came with them, and the images that reflected the lives of the peasant class have become rich symbols of Swedish culture and heritage.
Using common floral motifs and decorative elements of these art forms, along with the traditional materials of linen and homemade paints of egg tempera or animal glue, I create painted tapestries with scenes that narrate modern human stories. I draw inspiration from family traditions, my experience as an oncology nurse working with life and death, rural life in the Upper Midwest, as well as current events such as the Covid-19 pandemic.
Over the past 25+ years I have been a teacher, vocal advocate, and overall ambassador of sorts of Swedish folk painting. I have earned two Cultural Fellowships through the American Scandinavian Foundation to study in Sweden in order to perpetuate these folk arts in both Sweden and the United States.”
