Art

Donna Festa is a graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she earned a four year certificate in painting, the University of the Arts, also in Philadelphia, where she received a BFA in painting and teacher certification, and the University of Hartford in Hartford, Connecticut, where she received an MFA in painting.

Festa has works in both public and private collections including the State Museum of Pennsylvania. She has exhibited in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia and Miami. Her work has been published in Cleaver Magazine, December, 2013, Fresh Paint Magazine, October, 2013, INPA, vol. 1 , 2011, INPA, vol. 2, 2012, and New American Paintings, Mid-Atlantic Region vol. 51, 2004.

Her studio is in her home in Bangor, Maine.

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Artist statement:

Working primarily in oil paint, I choose wood as my painting surface. When preparing the panels, I make them as smooth as glass which enables my brush to easily glide wherever I take it. I work very quickly, starting and finishing a painting the same day. The small size of my work
is quite deliberate. I believe that a tiny format can be just as powerful as the oversized. Only one person at a time can view them which offers a more intimate experience.

Also, I am small. When I was a child I would fold myself up in order to make myself as small as possible. It felt safer. I know the feeling of others making me feel small. It stuck. Each painting is me.

Donna Festa
22 August 2024

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