Irene Roderick
The ART of IMPROV
I am excited to introduce artist Irene Roderick. Irene’s is currently working in textiles with a focus on quilt making and fabric surface design. She is a trained painter and has always been interested in color and pattern and how they evoke emotional and political responses. She recently discovered modern quilting and responded to the idea of making a utilitarian painting. Her discovery of improvisational quilting has led her to explore intuitively and spontaneously in a process she has developed and calls ‘dancing with the wall’. Let’s learn more about Irene and the ways in which she dances!
Balence (Detail) Irene Roderick
What does working improvisationally mean to you? How would you define the ‘Art of Improv’?
Working improvisationally means I’m never bored and never limited. When I started quilting I didn’t realize I was working in a “defined” way. I was making art with fabric instead of paint. I was able to place large pieces of color on a wall and respond to them quickly. I could play with shapes and placement easily. I could tear things down, move them around, add more, cut them in two, multiply them. I was fascinated with the process and the creativity it pulled out of me. I have always been a painter but hit the wall after 40 years. My paintings had been drained of all color and, for me, all interest. Quilting brought color back into my life because it made it so easy to see where it needed to go and what it could do.
“Art of Improvisation” is not a term I would normally use. I see all art as improvisation. Every artistic endeavor comes from deep inside a person. Each work includes choices based on personal experiences and preferences based on a particular history. If a quilt is made exactly to the specifications of a pattern, or a painting done by pre-described numbers, I don’t think of that as Art. It is not an authentic creative experience, but a copy of someone else’s experience. When I see the phrase “Art of Improvisation” now, I expect to see something original and interesting and usually mind-blowing!
Have you always worked improvisationally?
I have always worked improvisationally because I didn’t know anything different. I didn’t have any knowledge of quilting when I decided to try it. I don’t come from a family of quilters or sewists or makers. My mother was focused on music instead of visual art (which she did not deem important). I look back now and realize that I used art as an escape from the chaos of living in a large family. I have always been fascinated that I could make something out of bits and pieces. Growing up, my family didn’t have a lot of money but had a lot of kids. If I saw something I wanted, I would have to make it. I made thousands of paper dolls. I made puzzles. I made rag dolls if I wanted something to play with. I never had patterns so I would have to “improv” whatever I was making. I look back now and see what a great training ground that was!
Do you work improvisationally, consciously, intentionally? If so, how do you begin? If not, how do you find yourself getting there?
I start a quilt with a single piece of fabric. It often comes off the floor or out of a bin of leftover scraps from another project. I usually have an intent in mind such wanting to see if I can depict particular types of movement (my dancing series) or create a drawing in fabric (skinny lines) or use colors I’ve never used before. Then, I must get out of my own way. This is the most difficult part of my entire process. I have to let it flow. I have to let it tell me the next step. My process becomes entirely intuitive and fluid. I find that music is an essential part of my process. When I am making a fool of myself prancing around the studio, I find my energy is lifted and the movement works to my benefit.
Bonnie Riatt Irene Roderick
How often do you work with improvisation?
I always work improvisationally. I am very easily bored. I find that my process keeps me involved mentally and physically in every step of making a quilt from designing on the wall, sewing it together, quilting it on my machine.
Please share a bit about your process. Do you have methods to getting started? Do you have tricks to getting unstuck? Do you have motivators to finishing up?
I call my process “Dancing With The Wall.” I coined the phrase while designing a workshop. I had been asked to teach and didn’t know where to start. I started writing down each step while making a quilt. I realized I never sat down except at my sewing machine. I “dance” between the design wall, the cutting table, the sewing machine and the ironing board. Because it is imperative to keep assessing the work from 8-10’ away, I dance in a large circle around my studio all day. I start with a single piece of fabric placed in the middle of my design wall. I will choose this piece from scraps or off the floor. Sometimes I’m in the mood for a particular color to play with. I step back, study the piece and decide on my next step. I work from the center out, adding new elements as I go. I don’t sew it together until I am happy with the entire composition. I go back to the center and start piecing it together. To square off the quilt after it is all sewn together is often a challenge. I’ve learned to pin it on the wall, grab my 6’ long level and square it off on the wall. I can then press it (on the wall) and trim it. I quilt on a Bernina Q20 seated machine. I improvise my quilting as I go. Square it up again and either bind or face it depending on the quilt design.
I rarely get stuck. I call it “percolating” instead of stuck. If I’m not inspired, I just keep making. I work in the studio every day. I treat my practice as I would a full time job. I will decide to learn something and find a tutorial for a new technique if I see that my work is getting redundant. Mostly though, I throw something on the wall and keep going. I may spend 2-3 days on something that isn’t working and is really ugly, but I find that ideas are created when my hands are at work and I trust that my inspiration will be back when I’m not so tired or stressed.
I have a rule that comes from years of painting: finish what you are working on before starting anything new. Now that I live in a tiny house, I don’t have room for more than one project! I only start a new quilt when the last quilt leaves the quilting process and all I have left is binding (which I do sitting in front of bad TV in the evenings).
Where do you find inspiration? How do you use it?
My inspiration comes from graffiti and pottery and cake decorating and toys. I love quirky silly little things. A happy face balloon brings me pure joy. When I’ get depressed I go to the local toy store and browse or to the museum store and find things that make me smile. I rarely look at other art or quilts when I’m not feeling joy. I find that I get further depressed because I start comparing myself to the work of many talented artists. I find it best to look at the work I admire when I’m feeling strong and therefore open in spirit.
Pomegranate (Detail) Irene Roderick
What advice would you give to someone interested in trying to work improvisationally. Can you share some good advice that you received that helped you become more comfortable this way?
I have discovered that it is difficult to give advice for improv. I have students who are excited about trying it and students who are terrified. All I can tell them is to trust what they have learned through all their experiences. Let go of their preconceived notions of what they “should” make. I love the quotation “if it looks like Art, it isn’t.” What you make doesn’t have to be important but needs to take you somewhere new. DON”T LOOK AT OTHER PEOPLE’S WORK while you are working on a new piece. Learn to play. Have fun. Relax. Trust.
How would you finish the sentence, ‘What if, . . .?’
My fundamental “What if…” question that I ask is “What if I had never seen art? Or a quilt? What would I make and how would I think about it? Why am I making it?“ I think this is the most difficult question when I make my art. Can I step back from what I have been told is Art or Quilting and look at what I make in a new way?
What are reading, listening to, watching, or any other inspirational obsessions you would like to share?
It’s difficult at this moment in time (currently in the middle of COVID-19 quarantine) to look past the workers on the front line. I am watching escapist trash, I am listening to Ted Talk podcasts. Mostly, I am listening to John Prine (may he RIP), Willy Nelson, blue grass and reggae so I can keep dancing. I am trying to forget the outside world so that I can keep up the energy to move forward here in my little studio. Time is fleeting and I have so much I still want to explore and learn.
Thank you Irene for sharing with us all. I love this dance you do and love learning more about how you do it, I totally understand the flow you describe and relate so much with your process, I rarely sit either and love your idea of percolating instead of thinking of being stuck when we need time to decide where to go next. Teaching students to trust I also agree is the greatest gift any teacher can give especially when teaching an artistic subject. I am thankful to have that trust in my own practice and I find that asking ourselves why we make is difficult but when we search and explore the answer we get closer to making the best art we can. I am so glad to have met and discovered your work, I just love watching your dances come to life! They have totally inspired me to put a spring in my own step.
To learn more about Irene and her work, visit her website here, and be sure to check her out on Instagram here.