Joyce Goode

“To have the same medium in my hand that Christo had in his hands is a real treasure,” said Joyce Goode, when she was first approached by Running Fence-recycled. “I feel like at this stage in my art I am up to the task.” Joyce Goode was a contemporary art quilter who improvised fabrics with dyes, paints, silkscreening and monoprinting. She passed away too soon at the age of 64 in 2016, but left an amazing legacy.

Goode graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology where she studied graphic design. She was President of the San Francisco Quilter's Guild and was on the board of the Textile Arts Council of San Francisco. Her work was exhibited in several venues, including the California Artists show at the 2nd City Council in Long Beach, The Harvest Festival, Two Woman Show by the Zeno Group, the Marin Society of Artists National Exhibit, the East Bay Heritage Quilters Show and in the San Francisco Quilt Guild Show.

Goode's art quilts also interpreted traditional quilt patterns. She sought to understand 'tried and true' patterns, then break them apart for reassemblage into new compositions.

Her work was abstract, but every cut was deliberate and every artistic decision intentional. Color, texture and fiber were her lifelong loves, but she also incorporated light, sand, leaves, stones and other objects in her quilted wall hangings. She was excited to take a piece of fabric, determine what it suggested to her, and then develop it with paint, printing, other fabrics and stitching. The result was always a unique expression of her personality, and she felt a sense of connection with people who had seen her work.