Quilt and Poem Slideshows
Biographical Information
David Dowis has been writing poetry since 8th grade when he won an award in a national Scholastic Magazine poetry contest.
His poetry has been published in his high school and university literary journals and he is currently preparing a manuscript for submission to poetry publishers at the recommendation of writing and poetry teachers and mentors in Vancouver, Canada.
He is also a physician and for over 20 years has been the Medical Director of a clinic that serves low income clients in downtown Fresno, California. He has taught medicine at a medical school in Micronesia and established a home birth practice in Fresno in the decade from 1977 to 1987, attending over 900 women giving birth in their homes. He collaborates with his wife, Janet Dowis, who is a quilt artist, and names many of her quilts and has written over 110 impressions/poems bearing the names of the quilts. The impression that inspires the poem may be related to the visual impact of the quilt as a whole, or may refer to the theme of the quilt, or directly to the name of the quilt. Some poems reference what was happening in the artist’s life at the time the quilt was being made. The following slideshows have photos of the quilts displayed with the poems so one can refer conjointly to the written work and the visuals, which have resonances both ways, from poem to quilt and quilt to poem, and which make an interesting correspondence that can enhance the viewer’s experience of the quilt.