Alberni Arts is thrilled to continue our Featured Artist Series, shining a spotlight on one of our remarkable local artists. These profiles appear across our social media, website, and in the newspaper, celebrating the creativity thriving in our community.
This installment highlights Patti Dance, a contemporary art quilter inspired by the natural world, especially trees, flora, and fauna, with a signature use of wax immersion batik panels and hand-dyed fabrics worked into her pieces.
Patti Dance moved to the Alberni Valley in 1988 to continue her career as a Medical Laboratory Technologist, drawn by easy access to forest trails, beaches, and camping. After meeting her future husband, a passionate birder, Patti realized she needed a passion of her own — and found it in quilting, introduced to her by a friend who thought foundation piecing would suit her perfectionist nature. She soon moved from traditional quilting into art quilts, where she felt she could better express her own voice. Today, Patti is a contemporary art quilter inspired by the natural world, with trees, flora, and fauna appearing again and again in her work.
Patti’s process usually begins with a photograph — her own, or one she’s been given permission to use, often for reference in drawing animals. Working mostly in raw edge appliqué, she builds her original designs outward from a starting point, adding traced fabric pieces to a stabilizer base and refining as she goes. Finished tops go up on her design wall to rest before quilting, which she does through free-motion stitching on a well-worn domestic Juki machine. A signature touch came from classes in wax immersion batik — the one-of-a-kind panels she creates are often worked into her larger pieces — and she has since branched into dyeing her own fabrics too.
One of her most memorable pieces, Night Watch, features a hand-beaded raven’s head and an original moon design done in a First Nations style. Before the piece could be entered into a CQA National Juried Show, Patti needed sign-off from the authors of Learn by Doing and a local First Nations elder, both of whom confirmed the design’s originality and gave their blessing — a process she calls a lesson in patience and persistence.
While Patti doesn’t consider herself an activist, many of her recent works touch on themes like protecting bees, leaving a better world for future generations, and finding inner peace. She believes quilts, like any art form, can carry a message and still be beautiful — and that there’s plenty of room in art for both tradition and commentary.
Her advice to emerging artists: everyone has an inner artist waiting to be awakened, and self-expression is worth pursuing in any medium, whether or not it ever becomes a career. As she puts it — go out there and PLAY!
Patti’s talent has been widely recognized. She has had numerous pieces accepted into the Canadian Quilters’ Association (CQA) National Juried Shows since 2012, earning several awards along the way. Her art quilts have twice been juried into the Sidney Fine Arts Show on Vancouver Island, and she has been honoured with shows at The Rollin Art Centre (Port Alberni), The Old School House Gallery (Qualicum Beach), and The Grove Gallery (Port Alberni).
