Nicole T. Gagne

MONTPELIER - Nicole T. Gagne, 43, formerly of Montpelier and New York City, died unexpectedly on Sunday, October 4, 2015, in Big Sur, California. Born March 9, 1972, in Berlin, Vermont, she was the daughter of John Peter Gagne and Joanne Marcelle (Blouin). She was a member of the Montpelier High School class of 1990 and graduated with a BFA from Parsons School of Design in New York City as a metalsmith in product design.
During her high school years, she was accepted as a participant in a joint Montpelier and Harwood High School Project Harmony troop that travelled to the former Soviet Union performing traditional American folk songs and dance. This was the start of the international travel that she loved all her life. She won the annual Paletteers of Vermont scholarship for her art her senior year and also had her artwork displayed as part of the Jeffords Congressional Art Competition.
After college graduation, she worked for a couple of small costume jewelry companies in New York. Within a few years, she started her own jewelry design company with a former co-worker, Louise Douglas. Post-9/11 business was slow and she worked for several years as a prop stylist for photography. She was married and divorced from photographer Horacio Salinas. She and Louise eventually ended their partnership and she reorganized her company, Leoworks, as sole owner.
A year after recovery and recuperation from a near-fatal fall in 2009, she moved west to Los Angeles. She continued designing and making jewelry on a smaller scale, most recently living and working at The Brewery Art Colony. This year, she partnered with friend and fellow artist Capra J'neva to head a team that built and displayed their 20-foot sculpture of Axayacoatl at the Burning Man Festival in Black Rock, Nevada. She took classes in welding and metal bending, as well as using fire flame effects in sculpture to prepare for this build. The piece was constructed up in Big Sur, a place she grew to love. She rented a little cabin in the hills with a gorgeous view of the ocean, where she could be alone in the beauty of the central California coast.
Nicole had such a love of nature, adventure and a curiosity for what was out there in the world. It was reflected in her personal style, inspired her jewelry design and the life she created for herself. She loved to sing and lived her life through a perpetual kaleidoscope of music. She had a passion for working with her hands, hand hammering the metal for her jewelry, cooking, planting and decorating her spaces. Physical activity was integral to her life, biking, swimming, dancing, roller skating, hiking and, in California, learning to surf.
In her 20 years in New York City and her five years in Los Angeles, she created her tribe of friends, not just acquaintances, who she truly loved and who loved her. Rachel and Peter remained at the core of tribal siblings. Even as members of her tribe would scatter throughout the world, she still held them dear in her heart and her life.
Nicole is survived by her mother, Joanne Marcelle, of Montpelier, and father, John Peter Gagne and his wife, Carol, of Barre Town; stepbrothers Daren Arsenault, wife Lauri and children, Dana Arsenault and wife, Amy, and stepsister Dawn Arsenault; aunts Mary Kay Blouin, Ellin Bisson and husband Ray, uncle Richard Blouin, aunts Fern Hensen, Louise Dodge and husband Phil, Diane Button and husband Clayton, uncle Paul Gagne and wife Caroline, Uncle Ronnie Gagne and wife Louise and aunts Mary Gagne and Marilyn Gagne, great-uncle Roger Blouin and wife Joyce, great-aunts Polly Redmond and Dorothy Relation. She had many loving cousins, especially Janell Perry, Jacob Graves, Cyrus Graves, Kristin Darcy, Shelly Nouri and Randy Hensen.
She was predeceased by her grandparents, Marcel and Lenore Blouin and Michel and Therese Gagne; uncles Robert and Michael Gagne, uncle Curtis Graves and aunt Linda A. Blouin.
A memorial celebration of her life will be held Saturday, November 14, 2015, at 2 p.m. at Vermont College of Fine Arts Alumni Hall at 45 College St., Montpelier, Vermont.
Online condolences may be sent to www.guareandsons.com.