THE ARTIST
Lorraine Woodruff-Long
“Color provokes a psychic vibration. Color hides a power still unknown but real, which act on every part of the human body” – Wassily Kandinksy
BIO
Lorraine Woodruff-Long is a self taught quilter with a primary focus on color, improvisation, and recycled/repurposed fabrics.
Raised and educated in Texas, Lorraine served in Peace Corps Kenya and afterwards moved to California as a “bucket list” dream to temporarily experience living in a progressive urban city. She fell in love with San Francisco and never left. After a career in marketing and advertising, Lorraine later worked in the nonprofit sector while raising two city kids with her architect husband.
Lorraine learned to sew from her mother as a child and made her first quilts as a mom for her young children. With no formal art training, she found creative inspiration from the “Quilts of Gees Bend” exhibition at the de Young Museum in 2006. This sparked a fire to create with improvisation and repurposed materials. When Lorraine stumbled upon the online “modern quilt” movement, she fell deeply into her passion, carving out time from her demanding work and family life to create in spare hours on evenings and weekends. She has received numerous awards for her quilts at local, national and international quilt shows. She is a member of the Modern Quilt Guild, San Francisco Quilt Guild, Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA), East Bay Heritage Quilters, ArtSpanSF, Northern California Women’s Caucus for Art, and a volunteer with the Social Justice Sewing Academy Remembrance Project.
Her work has been juried into shows at the de Young Museum/San Francisco, the California Heritage Museum/Santa Monica, the Sanchez Art Center/Pacifica, the Drawing Room/San Francisco, and the San Francisco Women Artists Network Gallery among others. Her work is included in the 2021 book, “Stitching Stolen Lives: The Social Justice Sewing Academy Remembrance Project.”
Video Link: Commentary Quilts: Evolution and Exploration – San Francisco Quilt Guild – May 2022
Video Link: San Francisco Quilt Guild: Quiltmaker Stories – April 2021
ARTIST STATEMENT
One of my earliest memories is feeling compelled to touch and run my hands over bright, shiny colorful plastic buttons on a store rack. The same fluttery thrill bubbles up when I see collections of color in nature, art and everyday objects. It is this feeling that I seek to capture in my textile art and quilts.
Using mostly solids and repurposed fabrics, I create improvisational quilts with pulsing energy, color and movement for the viewer. My passion in the fiber art of quilting is utilizing vivid, electric color and shapes to create an immersive polychromatic experience in addition to using textiles to express my political and personal beliefs.
I am inspired by the historic legacy of women quilters, weavers, and textile artists before me who have poured their creative energies into meaningful, useful and beautiful works of art for their homes and families. I pay homage to the quilters of Gees Bend, the works of Rosie Lee Tompkins, and the simple beauty of Amish quilters. Other sparks of inspiration include the intellectual and mindblowing statements and graphic art of Barbara Kruger, Judi Chicago, Yayoi Kusama, and Jenny Holzer.
EXHIBITIONS
2023
The Modern Quilt Guild/QuiltCon 2023, Atlanta, GA
Live Worms Gallery/Women Artists Exhibition, San Francisco, CA
The Museum of Northern California Art/For the Love of Birds, Chico, CA
Drawing Room SF/ SKY, San Francisco, CA
Woman Made Gallery/Roe 2.0 Virtual Exhibition, Chicago, IL
The San Francisco Quilt Guild/Quilt San Francisco 2023
Northern California Women’s Caucus for Art/PORTALS, San Francisco, CA
U.S. Global Climate Assessment/Art x Climate, Washington D.C.
2022
International Quilt Festival/In the American Tradition, Houston, TX
Pacific International Quilt Festival, Santa Clara, CA Honorable Mention, Innovation
New Quilts of Northern California, Santa Clara, CA
Belvedere Tiburon Library Contemporary Abstract Art Juried Exhibition, Belvedere, CA
Envision Arts Online Exhibition/Beyond
Live Worms Gallery/TEXTural, San Francisco, CA
Drawing Room SF/Up in ARMS: Reproductive Rights in a Post-Roe World, San Francisco
Northern California Womens Caucus for Art/The Wild Side, Arc Studios & Gallery, San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Women Artists/Melting: Climate Crisis – Water is Life, San Francisco, CA
Sanchez Art Center/Left Coast Annual Juried Exhibition 2022, Pacifica, CA (Juror & Artists Talk Video)
The Modern Quilt Guild/QuiltCon 2022, Phoenix, CA
ArtSpan Juried Auction, San Francisco, CA
East Bay Heritage Art Quilters/Voices in Cloth, Richmond, CA
Drawing Room SF/Women Rising, San Francisco, CA
Envision Art Show/Black & White, Online Exhibition
O’Hanlon Art Center/Monochromatic, Mill Valley, CA
Fusion Art/Black & White, Online Exhibition
2021
The Modern Quilt Guild/QuiltCon 2021, Virtual
Pacific International Quilt Festival, Santa Clara, CA
San Francisco Women Artists/Verdant, San Francisco, CA
California Heritage Museum/SAQA Art Quilts 2, Santa Monica, CA
ArtSpan San Francisco Open Studios Collateral Competition Finalist, San Francisco, CA
ArtSpan Juried Auction, San Francisco, CA
2020
de Young Museum/de Young Bay Area Open Exhibition, San Francisco, CA
Pacific International Quilt Festival, Santa Clara, CA
@Covid19Quilt Project, Online Exhibition
2019
The Modern Quilt Guild/QuiltCon 2019, Austin, TX
San Francisco Quilt Guild Show, San Francisco, CA
Third Place Hand Quilted
Honorable Mention Pieced Traditional Large
Envisions Arts/Earth-Mother Exhibit, Denton, TX
Honorable Mention
Pacific International Quilt Festival, Santa Clara, CA
New Quilts of Northern California, Santa Clara, CA
First Place, Best Visual Impact
San Francisco Quilt Guild Show, San Francisco, CA
2018
Pacific International Quilt Festival, Santa Clara, CA
2017
New Quilts of Northern California, Santa Clara, CA First Place, Visual Impact
Pacific International Quilt Festival, Santa Clara, CA
San Francisco Quilt Guild, San Francisco, CA
2015
San Francisco Quilt Guild Show, San Francisco, CA
Third Place, Pieced Large & Honorable Mention
2013
San Francisco Quilt Guild Show, San Francisco, CA
Honorable Mention
PUBLICATIONS
Fifth National Climate Assessment Report, “Art x Climate”, 2023
Uppercase Magazine, “Craft Inspired by Type and Design”, Oct-Nov-Dec 2022
Fine Arts Magazine, de Young Museum, “Bay Area Open Exhibition”, Fall 2020
TEACHING
City College of San Francisco Extension/Fall 2023, Quilting Series: Part 1- “Getting to the Top”, Part 2 – “Crossing the Finish”
SCRAP-SF: Quilting Basics Series, Fall 2022 & Spring 2023
