Savaiano envisions oil painting as she has embraced her writings as a world-class journalist.  Each piece is an adventure of striking, dramatic impression, in particular landscapes of her global sojourns. 

She fashions understandable images that combine realistic and representational approaches.   Within this framework, however, Savaiano quests for something fresh in subject matter and presentation.  When conceptualizing, she ponders: “What might make the work memorable?  Can a story be told?  What might provoke conversation?”  Some responses: vivid rich colors, light-and-dark chiaroscuro contrasts, mirrored effects, human narratives, strong palette knife marks, energetic brush strokes. 

And visual transports to seminal locales.  As a traveling artist, Savaiano has captured emotional moments of the romantic Renaissance skyline of Florence, Italy, the rocky primordial depths of the Grand Canyon, and the kaleidoscopic mesas of Abiquiú, New Mexico.  

Although born and raised in the Chicago area and schooled for a master’s at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, Savaiano gravitated to the creative frontier in California.  While living in Los Angeles, she reported and wrote about national and international arts for Time, Inc. magazines, including Hollywood films as well as the city’s visual and performing artists, global art market and collectors, and museums like the J. Paul Getty Museum and Museum of Contemporary Art.  She has studied at the Florence Academy of Art in Italy, Otis College of Art & Design in Los Angeles, and Valdes Art Workshops in Santa Fe, New Mexico, under Kevin Gorges, a former instructor at the Florence Academy.  

Savaiano lives in Carlsbad, Calif., just north of San Diego.