Blending photography with quilting traditions, Carina Yépez reimagines photographs as tactile, layered works. Using appliqué and free-motion sewing, she draws with the machine, allowing thread to trace and disrupt the photo. She incorporates photographs of flowers taken on her phone during walks, an ongoing element of her work. Symbols of resilience and duality, these flowers embellish each background. The works materialize memory and exist between image and object.
In A Love Series, Yépez explores what it means to practice self-love within a capitalist culture that often prioritizes individualism. Me Amo is both an affirmation and mantra. A radical act. Llorando y Floreando reflects on vulnerability, embodying crying and emotional openness as courageous and healing acts.
“By tending to myself, I honor not just my own life, but the possibility of shared healing.”
Healing is a central theme in Yépez’s practice, and as an educator, she actively engages with her community through creative projects. She led a sewing circle with participants from Centro Romero’s Adult education programs, where she taught embroidery and woven photography techniques. Student works created during the sewing circle will be included in her exhibition.
Carina Yepez (b.1985) is Chicago, Illinois, native with family roots in Guanajuato, Mexico. She is an educator and artist. She is passionate about exploring the traditions of matriarchy and the interconnected stories of Chicago im/migrants through quilting. By using sewing as her medium, she delves into the techniques of domesticity and expresses her community's stories with a focus on healing ancestral trauma. Her work sparks conversations about the intersection of craft and fine art through sewing and appliqué layering, honoring her culture through floral motifs in her quilts and photographic weavings.
