Yvonne Porcella: - Quilters Newsletter

Yvonne Porcella:
Defining Why
Yvonne Porcella – weaver, quilter, designer,
author, founder of Studio Art Quilt Associates
(SAQA), Quilters Hall of Fame inductee – has
been a fiber artist for more than 50 years.
In 2014 she published Yvonne Porcella A
Memoir – Defining Why, which she started
writing after being diagnosed with ovarian
cancer. As she wrote in the Foreword, “The
plan for the book is to cover the decades of my
life which in my humble opinion have been
guided by a higher power.”
In her Editor’s Note, Rebecca Phillips
Abbott said, “The story of Yvonne Porcella’s
life and career is told here in her own words
with a spoken cadence that makes ample use
of commas or none at all, one thought cascading into the next. As a result, her storytelling
skills and charm shine brightly through for a
fuller understanding of her art works in the
end.”
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What follows are excerpts from her memoir
that offer a glimpse into Porcella’s pursuit of
expression, color and life through her art.
The Challenge and the Challenger
To move from garments to two dimensional art
work designed for the wall was a big leap for me. To
this day, my interest in patchwork does not include
all the complex geometric patterns. I am not interested in “Burgoyne Surrounded” or “Hole in the Barn
Door” and repeating these blocks. I love traditional
and classic quilts but they are just not on my list of
things to accomplish. I began and continue to work
with color first, as evident in my 1980s kimono titles,
such as Red, Hot, Cool Kimono.
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When I stopped weaving in 1980, I sold most of
my weaving equipment and spools of yarn knowing
I had to invest in a palette of cotton fabrics. I found
an ad for a mail order company and called them
to order one yard of 150 different colors in the
owner’s choice of colors in stock. I still have some
of these fabrics, nicely stacked on shelves, available
if needed. My first quilt Takoage initiated the use
of my colorful stash with cut strips of fabric 1˝, 1H˝
or 2˝ wide by 45˝ long. Using scissors, I cut many
strips and stitched them together, adding black and
white to break up the long strips. I laid the stitched
strips on my studio floor, rearranging them according to color flow. When I liked what I saw, I stitched
the long strips together. I continued to make quilts
in this style, using only strips of fabric, sometimes
adding a diagonal line. Titles again reflect color,
Homage to a Rainbow Maker, freely using yellow
which I had avoided in patchwork clothing lest it
draw attention away from the wearer.
ABOVE
Early weaving,
circa 1975
LEFT TO RIGHT:
Hot Kimono back,
48˝ x 60˝, 1982
Cool Kimono,
48˝ x 60˝, 1982
Red Kimono back,
48˝ x 60˝, 1981
Takoage,
72˝ x 82˝, 1980
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Meeting Someone Famous
In the mid-1990s Girls, Inc. of the Bay Area had a
wonderful idea to pair a famous quilt artist with a
famous woman chef to collaborate on an exhibit
titled Women of Taste. Each artist would meet the
chef, work with her in her kitchen or restaurant,
meet on the phone, explore the chef’s cookbook,
or do a design based on a specialty food. I was
invited to partner with Julia Child. “Here is her phone
number, call her!” I purchased a book, Appetite for
Life, by Noel Riley Fitch to learn more about her.
Born in Pasadena, CA, she went on to lead an exotic
life – what she said was the life of a secretary during
World War II in China and Burma. Her job included
making eight carbon copies of information obtained
by her team and getting it back to headquarters.
She married Paul Child, a fellow worker, and after
the war she and Paul were stationed in Paris. Julia,
who was very tall and always hungry, fell in love with
French food. She broke tradition by enrolling in the
formerly all-male Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, guardian
of French culinary technique. She and Paul would
entertain American visitors in Paris, Julia delighting in
using her new culinary skills to entertain.
When I called she was visiting her home in California and was aware of the project and was very
cordial on the phone. Would I like to “come to
Santa Barbara and have lunch” so we could “discuss
our bright colorful quilt?” Reading the book gave
me insight into Julia and her business relationship
and devotion to her husband Paul. I thought it
would be appropriate to have my husband with me
when we met her at her home. Julia wanted to have
lunch at a local restaurant and made reservations.
She positioned my husband beside her with me
across the table. The chef came out to our table,
knelt on the floor next to her while she and he
arranged our meal. Much of the lunch conversation
was between Julia and my husband; finally I asked if
we could talk about the quilt.
My suggestion of putting her name on the top
of the quilt was met with outrage, “I am not a
celebrity; I am a teacher.” My plan was to make an
irregular shape to the quilt, she was unique, so too
the quilt. She agreed to putting Bon Appétit at the
top of the quilt, and then proceeded to describe
exactly what she envisioned – a nice Salade Niçoise,
everything fresh and beautifully arranged, boiled
potato, green beans, Niçoise olives, tomato slices,
hard boiled eggs, tuna on a bed of Boston lettuce
with lemon juice and oil dressing. My mind was
racing, what is Boston lettuce? And thank goodness we are eating a salad for lunch, suppose she
LEFT Yvonne Porcella, 1972
CENTER Yvonne working on
Answering the Riddle,
109˝ x 112˝, 1997
RIGHT Yvonne Porcella, 2013
Photos courtesy Yvonne Porcella
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Bon Appétit, 49˝ x 62˝, 1994
had ordered bouillabaisse? I suggested a grilled fresh
tuna, oh my, she raised herself up out of the chair and
said a resounding, “NO.” Auguste Escoffier who developed the Salade Niçoise would only have used a nice
oil-packed tuna, fresh indeed, it would have spoiled in
the heat of the south of France. Besides, she said, oil
is good for your skin. We went on to discuss how we
both liked eggplant although it was not included in the
salad. Then she asked if I could put two cats on the
quilt, she and Paul had two cats and they were a big
part of their lives in filming the cooking shows and at
home. When we took her home after lunch she offered
to pose for a photo with me. Paul had passed away
and she had a small home in a senior facility where she
planned to retire after giving up her Cambridge, MA,
home. “They have a dreadfully small kitchen here but
if I need to I can go to the dining room for meals and
there is a place for me here when I go bonkers.” Her
parting remark to me was to visit her in Cambridge
sometime. I was able to do that when I escorted a
grandson to Harvard, she again answered her phone,
was happy to meet for lunch after she attended the
funeral of her favorite butcher. She suggested the
Hasty Pudding Restaurant at 1:00 p.m. The cooking staff
all came out to meet her and she again ordered our
lunch, encouraging my grandson to order dessert. He
declined, she insisted, and then took her spoon and
helped herself to a taste off his plate.
Gratitude
I have enjoyed a life of travel to exotic destinations,
meeting extraordinary people, experiencing more
joys than sorrows. After reading this book I hope
you understand how I work and Why. … I am forever
grateful to those who made it possible for me to live
life to the fullest. T
Visit www.yvonneporcella.com to view more of Yvonne
Porcella’s work.
Yvonne Porcella A Memoir –
Defining Why is available at
QuiltAndSewShop.com
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