✦ Artist Dissertation — Liamarie Movalli (LMC)
I am a multidisciplinary visual artist working in organic printmaking, photography, upcycled textile design, and natural ink. My art is rooted in imperfection—of the body, of nature, and of memory. I create to make meaning from grief and to bridge the healing connection between the human form and the earth.
Art has never been a luxury for me. It has been a lifeline. In the last six months alone, I survived a near-fatal car accident, and a 12-day hospital stay, lost my home and survived a sexual assault. Then faced with homelessness for the third time in my life. These experiences stripped me of independence but unearthed a deeper creative force. Through it all, I’ve continued to make art with what I had—because it’s what gets me through.
Raised by a single mother, I learned resourcefulness early. I was discouraged from pursuing art as a career, despite knowing I was born to create. At twelve, I began sleeping in nature to escape domestic abuse. Later, lived in my car while attending community college, eventually dropping out to prioritize survival over student debt. I kept dreaming that one day my work would become more than a hobby.
In 2021, I launched Lucy Lou’s Vintage, named after my grandmothers Lucille and Louanne, both passed during the pandemic. I inherited their wardrobes—fabrics, jewelry, and decades of charm collected over their worldly travels. I began selling the vintage goods I inherited, alongside live hand-sewn bags at local flea markets. I turned my booth into a live art experience, stitching custom tote bags and creating lasting memories with each bag buyer.
This spring, while healing in solitude, I began making organic prints using foraged leaves and homemade ink from beets, blueberries, yogurt, chutney—and whatever was looking sad in the fridge that day. Printed on brown paper bags, the series explores the relationship between plants and the human body. Some impressions include my own form while menstruating. These works are raw, textured, imperfect—just like me.
I sign my work LMC, the “C” for Chippone, a the maiden name of my nana I plan to legally change to honor my maternal ancestry. My grandmas first cousin is a gifted dreamscape painter named Dolores Chippone survived great personal trauma and found healing through art therapy and psychedelics in the late 50s. She sent my Grandma Louann an original large scale oil painting from California in the late 80s, a piece I will one day inherit. Now in her 90s, she continues to paint. Her resilience and vision inspire me deeply, and I hope to have a body of work to show her one day—a continuation of our family’s creative lineage.
Though we've never met we both seem to feel called to captivate the organic beauty Mother Earth granted us. Like Dolores, I’ve been hospitalized for mental health, experienced loss, heartbreaks, and recently learned I have PCOS. I will never be a mother in the traditional sense—but I am a lover of many things. I have a young of my own named Stevie Licks, we rescued on Valentine’s Day. Miss Licks has helped me through my best and worst days. We traveled 3600 miles across the country together with nothing but each-other and a U-Haul trailer on a journey we’ll never forget.
This residency is not just time away—it’s a sacred opportunity. A chance to build work that reflects the complexity of survival and the quiet magnificence of imperfection. A chance to collaborate, heal, and be seen by a community of artists who understand that creation is not a luxury—it is a form of survival.
I don’t have a perfect portfolio. Many of my early works were lost or discarded without my consent. But I create to keep going. If accepted, I plan to expand my leaf and body print series in collaboration with others—honoring the natural forms of flora and femme bodies as uniquely beautiful and inherently worthy of love.
Thank you for considering me.
With gratitude and wild hope,
Liamarie Movalli (LMC)