What aspects of your cultural heritage are you most proud of ?
I’m the firstborn daughter of a couple who immigrated to Canada from southern Italy. Growing up in Montreal with my parents — both of them very young, my mother only 18 when I was born — shaped so much of who I am.
My mother had been raised to be exceptionally skilled. By their early teens, girls like her already knew how to sew, knit, crochet, and embroider. My father, too, was a craftsman. I grew up watching my mother cook extraordinary meals and create beautiful things with her hands, and I saw the same spirit in my father.
Our home was also filled with stories of art, history, and architecture. Canada, at the time, felt like a very young country, and I think my father especially missed the deep cultural roots of Italy. My parents passed those values on to me.
I’m forever grateful to them for awakening in me a love of beauty and an appreciation for handmade, do-it-yourself craftsmanship. I know how to sew, knit, crochet, and cook. I’m an avid gardener. I’ve worked with marble, metal, ceramics, and glass — including many years of glass fusion, through which I’ve built a substantial body of work.
The artist in me is inseparable from my cultural heritage. It’s a legacy my parents transmitted to me — and it’s a gift. I couldn’t have asked for more.
Words Have Power 