Danielle Festa
Artist, Educator and Executive Director
In 2021, contemporary artist Danielle Festa began painting trauma survivors to honor their resilience and strength. With the support of a dedicated board, this project has grown into a powerful initiative, using art to foster hope and healing.
Danielle has been painting hyper-realist portraits with mixed media fabric elements since graduating with a BFA from UMASS Amherst in 2007. Festa began painting her cousin who opened up about experiencing childhood intra-familiar abuse. What started as a cathartic expression of personal pain and observed strength emerging from her cousin has evolved into a full fledged project. She is honored to create and give portraits to individuals that trust her to reflect back the resilience she sees. Textile plays an important role in the survivor paintings as it represents the choice each survivor makes to portray their own empowerment. In addition to painting the portraits and spearheading the community programming, Danielle has a background in graphic design and web design that enables her to run a full range of operations for the organization. Listen to a Seacoast Stories podcast Danielle was featured on here.
the paintings
Click to read the stories if you are in a place to receive them. Each is an empowering example of finding strength after the trauma but reading the details may bring up some emotion. If you or someone you know has experienced trauma and are looking for support, here are some reputable organizations available to help.
"Stitched Together"
Oil and acrylic on linen by Danielle Festa and crochet by Sravya Kaniti 2024
Read the story
Artist Statement
Danielle Festa creates hyper-realistic, mixed media oil paintings that highlight resilience in trauma survivors. Figurative paintings of the Renaissance period were reserved for the rich and powerful, with carefully selected attire to highlight their prominent placement in society. Festa highlights a different type of power embodied in individuals who have faced incredible adversity, and paints survivors in self-selected wardrobes that showcase their strength.
There are many ways of coping with physical or mental trauma when it comes to outward appearance. Material can be a mechanism: for hiding, for comfort, for control. Festa discovers and paints survivors who have found the confidence to step back into the light. Color, pattern, fit, and embellishments worn with confidence, or that tell a story, can inspire others to rise up in the face of adversity.
The abstracted brush strokes or ink backgrounds contrast the detailed hyper-realistic portraits. The colorful, or sometimes dark, elements represent the complexity of entangled traumatic experiences, rising emotions and the emergence of courage.
Each survivor collaborates to find a Renaissance painting that speaks to them. This becomes an inspirational reference for Festa's modern interpretation of each portrait recipient's position, along with background elements. The Aplomb Project ensures that every survivor ends up with their portrait as a reminder of their strength.
The Aplomb Project is a 501(c)3 organization that uses the transformative power of art to uplift trauma survivors, promotes creative healing and presents inclusive artistic opportunities.
If you or someone you know has experienced trauma and are looking for support, here are some reputable organzations that are available to help.
Stand with survivors
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EIN #92-1844895 | The Aplomb Project
262 Central Ave, Dover, NH 03820
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The Aplomb Project is a non-profit a 501(c)3 organization that uses the transformative power of art to uplift trauma survivors, promote creative healing, and present inclusive artistic opportunities. All contributions are tax deductible to the full extent of the law.
Aplomb Gallery resides at Cocheco (CO-chi-co) on N’dakinna (n-DA-ki-na), now called Dover, New Hampshire, which is the unceded traditional ancestral homeland of the Abenaki (a-BEN-a-ki), Pennacook and Wabanaki Peoples, past and present. We acknowledge and honor with gratitude the land, waterways, living beings and the Aln8bak (Al-nuh-bak), the people who have stewarded N’dakinna (n-DA-ki-na) for many millennia.
