A project by Marie Watt, guest at the American Embassy in Nicosia

By Heidi Trautmann

A huge colourful blanket laid out on a table in the Fulbright Centre Nicosia, around which I find sitting Marie Watt, the artist from Portland in Oregon USA, and ladies and one gentleman stitching pieces of felt together which form a wonderful design: the law of geometry, triangles added to one another to a size of at least 3 x 5 m; I added my stitches as well, so I will also be part of the Cyprus Blanket. Marie will take it home and one day exhibit it and she will add her version of Cyprus from the stories she heard while they were all sitting together.

Marie Watt was born in 1967 in Seattle/Washington.  She holds a BA degree in art from Willamette University and a Master's Degree from Yale University. She has also studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Watt's art is primarily lithography and sculpture. For her sculpture, she uses a variety of materials, including everyday objects, as well as textiles, alabaster, slate, and cornhusks.

She is known for her Blanket Stories, a sculpture made of two towers of wool blankets, with each stack sewn together with a central thread. The blankets are ones Watt collected over several years, including many Hudson's Bay point blankets that were given to Native Americans in trade by the Hudson's Bay Company during the 19th century.

She is currently a professor at Portland Community College and the gallery coordinator of its Northview Gallery.

Being part Seneca Indian it lies in her interest to promote Indian art and she is therefore also interested in the traditional characteristics of other countries.  I wonder if she will travel around the world to make a blanket for each country so she can one day create her own world. It is better she takes the blanket with her otherwise our people could use it to cover the endless Cyprus Problem up.