Irene Roderick: Improv Quilting

Irene Roderick’s artwork is currently grounded in the textile arts, focused on quilt making and fabric dyeing.  She is trained as a painter and has always been interested in pattern and color and how these elements can evoke emotional and political responses. A few years ago, Irene encountered modern quilting and loved the idea of making a “utilitarian painting.” She learned to quilt and accidentally discovered improvisational quilting, an intuitive, spontaneous process Irene calls "dancing with the wall.” The technique opened a new-found creativity for Irene. This work is entirely intuitive and visceral.

Irene begins by placing a scrap of fabric in the center of her design wall and then grows the quilt one element at a time, responding to each “step” until it feels balanced, interesting, and joyful. When Irene begins she does not know what is going to happen, but she creates through trial and error, literally dancing between the wall, the cutting mat, the sewing machine, and the iron. Through this act of making, Irene has learned to embrace the joy of creative intuition, spontaneous expression, and a blind trust in process.

https://www.ireneroderick.com/