Carina Yepez (MFA 2021)
Carina Yepez was born in Chicago and raised in Cicero, Illinois. She learned how to sew by observing her grandmother and then sitting with her mother as she sewed garments for her family. Carina has been a photographer since a young age and learned the quilting technique from the co-op of women Puntadas del Alma. Her body of photographs and quilted applique works explores her narrative and universal connections to being Mexicana-Americana. With experience working in many roles at the National Museum of Mexican Art and the Chicago History Museum she imbues the values of community, history and education into everything she sews. Her focus in this program is to honor the generations of women before her through tradition, color, love and fibers. Using layers, patterns and stitches, her quilts tell the stories of the emotions surrounding the perspectives and history of her heritage.