When not in her studio, Deanna Fainelli wanders city streets taking photos. Photos are the foundation of her mixed media work. In recent years, she has been inspired by images in Taiwan, Mexico, Spain, Berlin, and Holland among other places. Some of her favorite images, and maybe the ones she has become best known for, are the scenes she has discovered in the San Francisco Bay Area where she lives.
Drawing on a creative career that includes scenic painting for music videos, graphic design, and working as a staff photographer for a daily newspaper, she captures the gritty soul of the city with her camera. It might be a blinking neon sign, a weathered building, a tangle of overhead wires, a high heel shoe, or a discarded bicycle. Fainelli photographs not only for the subject matter-- with her pictures she documents details that tell a story.
In the studio, Deanna takes these original images and manipulates them. She then adds acrylic paint and often paper in several layers, overlaying and sometimes even stripping away the image she originally started with. When these elements are combined the result is a one-of-a-kind mixed media piece with a distinctively edgy urban look.
