Yvonne Porcella used bright, bold colors in combination with black and white, often in checkerboard configurations, for her early quilts. At first she used the technique of strip-piecing, but then broke into freer constructions. These colorful quilts soon became narrative masterpieces. Her first such quilt was titled, “Taking the Greyhound to Bakersfield.” When she works with dyeing and painting silk, her colors become more muted and translucent. Her very earliest work was in ethnic clothing, and she continues to make highly original quilted garments, such as those shown in Yvonne Porcella: A Colorful Book.
Her quilts can be found in several museums: the High Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, American Craft Museum and the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian. Her quilt, “Keep Both Feet on the Ground,” was selected as one of the 20th Century’s 100 Best American Quilts. She appears in the book 88 Leaders in the Quilt World Today.
In 1989 she founded Studio Art Quilt Associates, which is dedicated to educating the public, documenting the art quilt movement and advocating the recognition of the quilt as art. In 1998 she was selected as one of the artists in the 9th International Triennial of Tapestry in Lodz, Poland. She was awarded the Silver Star at the International Quilt Festival, Houston, Texas, that same year.
Yvonne Porcella
Quilt and fabric artist , author and teacher, Founder: The Studio Art Quilt Associates. Inducted in 1998 at The Quilters Hall of Fame Celebration, Marion, Indiana.
Research Associate: Alyson B. Stanfield