with Ally DeRusso

Art Town is a podcast based in upstate New York, hosted by artist and educator Justin Baker. Each month, Baker engages in meaningful conversations with regional artists and artisans, exploring their work, creative processes, and the lives they lead. In this episode, I sit down with Ally DeRusso, a printmaker and photographer living and working in upstate New York. We discuss how her quilted pieces come together, how photography shapes our understanding of memory, and how her practice is evolving in the wake of graduate school. Drawing on her personal archive, Ally creates quilt-like objects that explore themes of domesticity, recollection, and memorialization. Through silkscreen, etching, and woodcut, her photographs are translated onto fabric—becoming fragmented, reinterpreted, and layered with floral surface patterns that echo the delicate balance of life and loss. Her work questions what we remember, what fades, and how touch and repetition shape the images we carry. Ally received her BFA from The College of Saint Rose and her MFA from the University at Albany. Insightful, intelligent, and grounded in the art world’s evolving narrative, Art Town is where regional voices find resonance. To see more of Ally's work: www.allyderusso.com Or follow her on Instagram: @allyderusso_ Theme music by Phantogram Opening song: Start Credits/ The Figgs Ending song: I Bought Kicks/ The Figgs