About the Artist

Deborah (Pagano) Feiste, a Connecticut native, studied painting, graphic design and illustration at the University of Connecticut where she received her Bachelors of Fine Arts degree. She has furthered her studies in mixed media art techniques at the Greenville Museum of Art in SC and Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts in Gatlinburg, TN. She has over 30 years experience as a freelance artist and as an art instructor for both children and adults. She has served on the faculty at the University of Connecticut Community School of the Arts and Quinnebaug Valley Community College in Connecticut, as well as the John Waldron Arts Center in Bloomington, Indiana.

Feiste moved to South Carolina in 1995 where she founded and served as Executive Director of The Arts Center, a non-profit community arts organization located in Clemson, SC.   She also served on the South Carolina Botanical Gardens Gallery Selection Committee, and as a working member of the Caffeine Contemporary Art Forum in Greenville, SC. She has curated and exhibited extensively throughout the southeast and has work in private and corporate collections throughout Indiana and Upstate South Carolina.

Feiste is currently a member of The International Society of Assemblage and Collage Artists, National Collage Society, Atlanta Collage Society, The Bascom: Center for the Visual Arts and the Metropolitan Arts Council.  Her studio is located in Central, South Carolina and her current work focuses on narrative themes as they relate to social, political, and cultural issues presented in a mixed media format.

Artist Statement

My obsession with collecting found ephemera, discarded objects, and wooden boxes provides me with the tools necessary for creating intimate narratives set in collage and assemblage. I thrive on the beauty of decay, which I find in the multiple layers and rich textures of old books, vintage photographs, rusted objects, and organic matter. Often my process begins with a single item or image that intrigues me. I arrange and rearrange unrelated objects until a visual story emerges or the composition is visually pleasing on its own. Once the viewer is drawn into the narrative, the intent is to create both an internal and external discussion based on the situations and symptoms of our social, political, religious and domestic lives.