Lorraine Woodruff-Long

Lorraine Woodruff-Long is a self-taught San Francisco quilter with a primary focus on color, improvisation, and recycled/repurposed fabrics. Raised in Houston, and educated at University of Texas/Austin, 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 before spring boarding into a fiber art practice prompted by the pandemic.

Using mostly repurposed fabric from clothing and solid cotton fabric, Woodruff-Long creates improvisational quilts with pulsing energy, color and movement for the viewer. Her 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 her political and personal beliefs.

She is strongly inspired by the historic legacy of women quilters, weavers, and textile artists before her who have poured their creative energies into meaningful, useful and beautiful works of art for their homes and families. Woodruff-Long pays 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 mind blowing statements and graphic art of Barbara Kruger, Judi Chicago, Yayoi Kusama, and Jenny Holzer.

In addition to having exhibited in various showings in California and international festivals, the artist also is involved in her community by teaching and leading quilting workshops in San Francisco.