Well, a few weeks back we were treated to am amazing slide show presentation by artist Ben Venom, who “juxtaposes traditional handmade crafts with extreme elements found on the fringes of society” and whose “work can be described as opposing forces colliding at lightening speed”. I have to quote his website since I cannot describe it sufficiently myself.  He is an amazing energetic presenter and we were all entranced and invigorated. Unfortunately I have no pictures!  So you are going to have to click on the image below to get to his website. This is something else.  Color me inspired.

Ben Venom, photo by Margo Moritz

After Ben, we changed courses and were treated to a viewing of a stream of quilts from Roderick Kiracofe’s collection while he discussed them.  I got a photos of a few of them to share with you.  Amazing. Most of them were from quilter unknown, from many a decade gone by. They were priceless and Roderick’s passion for his quilt finds was palpable, as was the audience’s response! Pretty exciting to meet him and pretty scary that I know now one could actually COLLECT quilts. Oh, no, hold me back!

Roderick Kiracofe is an art and quilt collector, accomplished author, curator, and consultant. A good summary of his books and accomplishments can be found HERE (why reinvent the wheel!)  Truly a joy to see some of his collection and hear the stories behind them. Several are going to be in his new book Unconventional and Unexpected: American Quilts Below the Radar, 1950-2000, Abrams, Autumn 2014.  Currently available by Roderick on Blurb are Quilts and Quilts 2, and on his Amazon page one can find a number his books including the amazing and well-known The American Quilt: A History of Cloth and Comfort 1750-1950 and Cloth & Comfort: Pieces of Women’s Lives from Their Quilts and Diaries.

Without further ado, take a gander at some of these finds of Rodney Kiracofe. Apologies for my less than stellar photography due to viewing circumstances, but still well worth a look I think.

From the collection of Roderick Kiracofe

From the collection of Roderick Kiracofe

From the collection of Roderick Kiracofe

From the collection of Roderick Kiracofe

From the collection of Roderick Kiracofe

From the collection of Roderick Kiracofe

From the collection of Roderick Kiracofe

From the collection of Roderick Kiracofe

From the collection of Roderick Kiracofe

From the collection of Roderick Kiracofe

From the collection of Roderick Kiracofe

quilt top back From the collection of Roderick Kiracofe

From the collection of Roderick Kiracofe

From the collection of Roderick Kiracofe

From the collection of Roderick Kiracofe

From the collection of Roderick Kiracofe

From the collection of Roderick Kiracofe

From the collection of Roderick Kiracofe

From the collection of Roderick Kiracofe

From the collection of Roderick Kiracofe

Next up at The Plaid Portico will be curated coverage of the big show of the East bay Heritage Quilt Guild, and a project round-up for Pop Rox which is just starting to hit stores now.