My quilts reflect the way in which I interpret the world. I often make quilts that are humorous and ambiguous. I enjoy looking at a work of art without knowing what the artist intended and interpreting the work for myself. I hope others will look at my work that way, enjoying and interpreting as they wish. I am pleased when a viewer offers an interpretation that never occurred to me. I am inspired by situations as well as places or events. A line from the evening news, an everyday event, a place, a phrase, or a personal experience may trigger a quilt picture in my mind. I like to make quilts that draw the viewer closer and I usually include some things to be discovered up close that can't be noticed from afar.
JUDITH FREDMUND MCIRVIN
Chantilly, VA
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
As a child I spent hours in my grandmother’s sewing room. She was an artist and much of the motivation and inspiration for me to develop my own skills with fabric. I was lucky to attend school in Iowa where I had art classes every year and became a chronic museum and gallery aficionado. In college I officially studied psychology, was able to schedule one official art class, but spent many hours in the art building. My art has been influenced by that experience. Throughout the following years, as I attended graduate school and expended my energy on my children, I also always "made art". It was often in fabric.
Until July 2000, I worked full or part time as a school psychologist and squeezed quilt making and fabric art into “extra time”. Quilt making took my mind away from the tragedies I dealt with in my work, but it was also something I was driven to do. I enjoyed teaching "at risk students" how to make quilts. I never took quilting classes, but I did purchase books and I continued to hang out in galleries and attend quilt shows whenever possible. My family was always terrific about supporting my quilt work. In the 1980s we converted part of our garage into a room with storage space for my fabric stash, room to work on quilts, and flooring that couldn’t be easily destroyed by my “experiments” with paint and dye. My “studio” was born.
I have been a full time quilter since 2001 and no longer work in isolation. I now have the time to be a guild member; to be active in Q & A Quilt Artists, a local quilt art group; to exhibit; and to publicize and market my work. I have become one of the regional representatives for Studio Art Quilt Associates which gives me more opportunity to network with other art quilters. Most importantly, I have time to be productive in larger blocks of time.
PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
American Craft Council
Colonial Beach Artists' Guild Colonial Beach, VA
Fiber Art Study Group DC Metro Area
Q & A Quilt Artists Northern VA, DC, MD
Quilters Unlimited Fairfax, VA
Studio Art Quilt Associates Past Regional Rep. for VA, NC, SC
