In a quiet studio in West Fargo, North Dakota, Jane Gaffrey carefully affixes a label to her latest quilt, Nanna’s Daffodils. Her gray tabby, Stormy—usually the designated “art helper”—has been momentarily replaced by Norman, another feline companion eager to assist. The quilt, a tribute to her grandmother’s garden and the love that bloomed there, is more than fabric and thread. It’s a story of survival, transformation, and the enduring power of art.
Jane is one of nine recipients of the 2025 Midwest Award for Artists with Disabilities, presented by Arts Midwest. The award recognizes exceptional disabled visual artists across the region and supports their creative work with unrestricted funding. For Jane, the honor is deeply personal. It affirms a journey that began in medicine and continues in art—a journey shaped by illness, resilience, and the quiet strength of family.
A former child and adolescent psychiatrist, Jane practiced in North Dakota for a decade before her health forced her to step away. She was diagnosed with a rare genetic condition: autosomal dominant leukodystrophy with axonal spheroids and pigmented glial cells (ALSP), also known as CSF1R-associated leukoencephalopathy. The disease, which affects the brain’s microglial cells, typically leads to rapid cognitive decline and death within a few years. Jane’s case, however, progressed more slowly—slow enough for her to become one of fewer than 20 people worldwide to receive a bone marrow transplant for the condition.
In 2023, Jane traveled to Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, for the transplant. A photo (left) she shared shows her in a hospital bed, holding the first of seven bags of donor marrow. Another (right) captures her in a wheelchair, masked and triumphant, ringing the bell to mark the end of her month-long hospital stay. “The stem cells migrate to the brain and become microglial-like cells,” she explained, “taking over the role of my damaged microglia and preventing progression of the illness.”
The physical toll was immense—chemo, radiation, isolation, and a long recovery. But Jane’s cognitive function remained intact, and her creative spirit only deepened. “Art is play as I explore new materials,” she wrote. “It is life-giving and life-sustaining.”
Her quilts are layered with meaning, memory, and meticulous craftsmanship. New Beginnings: Physician to Artist, created for the 2023 Minnesota Quilters Challenge, is a 3D narrative quilt that symbolically depicts the burning of her medical career and the rebirth of her identity through art. A doll crawls across a hexagonal quilt, gathering pieces of her past—photos, mini paintings, and even her grandmother’s thimble—into a basket of healing.
Another piece, Abyss-mal Hope, was accepted into the Cherrywood Fabrics traveling exhibit. It features a lighthouse beaming through darkness, embroidered with glowing sea creatures and the phrase “there is hope in the depths.” The quilt is a meditation on depression, inspired by her time on the psychiatric unit at Mayo Clinic Rochester. “People often refer to depression as a pit or the Abyss,” she wrote. “But I did find hope there.”
Jane’s art is deeply rooted in family. Her mother and grandmother were both skilled sewists who nurtured her creativity from a young age. She made her first solo project—a blue “Mrs. Cookie Monster” doll—at age four. Her grandmother, Marion Hudson (below), was a master of needle arts and grace. “I carry her grace and love,” Jane said. Nanna’s Daffodils, made for the Sacred Threads/Art in Hospitals exhibit at the University of Chicago Hospitals, is based on a childhood photo of Jane picking flowers in her grandmother’s garden. “We laughed often over the photo at how careful I was being not to step on the flowers.”
Now, through her business Gray Tabby Arts (named for her ever-present feline assistants), Jane continues to create quilts that honor memory, express emotion, and offer comfort. She hopes to use her art to support grieving families and children facing life-threatening illness. “My goals are to continue to express life experiences and the hope that shines even if only as a tiny speck of light in difficult circumstances,” she wrote in her artist statement.
In North Dakota, where the winters are long and the communities close-knit, Jane Gaffrey’s quilts shine like daffodils in spring—bright, brave, and full of hope.
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Jane Gaffrey Bio and Artist Statement
Jane’s creative journey began in early childhood. By age three or four, she was guiding fabric through her mother’s sewing machine and completed her first solo project—a blue “Mrs. Cookie Monster” doll—at age four. She received her first sewing machine at eight and has been creating ever since. Her grandmother, an expert in needle arts, and her mother, a skilled sewist, were early mentors who nurtured her love of textiles and storytelling through fabric.
Originally from Rhode Island, Jane holds two Bachelor of Science degrees—one in child life from Utica University and another in microbiology from the University of Rhode Island—followed by a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree from the University of New England. During her medical training, art became a vital tool for coping with depression and the early symptoms of her neurological condition. What began as stick figures evolved into expressive, layered works of fiber art.
Jane is a member of Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA), where her work aligns with the definition of an art quilt: layered and stitched. Her portfolio includes portraits of pets and people, as well as deeply personal pieces that reflect her medical background and lived experience with illness and recovery.
As Jane writes in her artist statement: “My goals are to continue to express life experiences and the hope that shines even if only as a tiny speck of light in difficult circumstances. I would like to continue to learn in the area of art quilting and expand to other media. In addition I hope to be able to use my art to help parents grieving the loss of a child and children and families facing life-threatening illness.”