Catherine Levoie
I am an American fiber artist from Connecticut. I grew up with quilts made from scraps by my grandmother. Inspired by Amish quilts, I learned the art of re-purposing cloth doing all stitching by hand. In the early 1970s I studied Fine Art Photography with Tom Hricho in New Haven working with a 5” x 7” view camera with an 18-inch bellows and a barrel lens. Influences at that time included Gertrude Stein, Virginia Wolf, and Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.. Expanding fabric art beyond traditional bed quilts, I began finding ways to transfer photographs to cloth. Soon I was experimenting with other nontraditional techniques, including fabric painting, natural dying, fusing, collage with found objects such as shells, stones, and sticks. I have always been interested in understanding, human experiences and the meanings people give to their experiences. As an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse specializing in mental health and addictions, I came to understand emotional pain and the power of therapy to heal. Emotions and their consequences create story, and among my favorites are the Greek myths. My seven part series of framed quilts about Demeter and Persephone have been shown and presented in several settings. Exploring spirituality led me to Buddhist philosophy. I have a regular practice of yoga and meditation and enjoys spiritual retreats. Pema Chodron is one of my teachers.I created a series of framed quilts exploring the 7 chakras. Each is 36” square, mounted and framed on stretched canvas. For these I used re-purposed cloth, elements of plastic bags, discarded high tech power cords and cellophane. Each piece was made after contemplating the meaning of that particular chakra. Currently I am creating a series related to the 12-step model of recovery. I am honored to join Hera Gallery and to be a part of it’s inspiring tradition of women in art.
