Diane Savino uses art as a search for identity. Savino, who began life in an orphanage, was later adopted into a multigenerational Catholic Italian household. Using the Italian tradition of egg tempera, the paintings combine symbol and iconography that reference personal journeys. Savino, who acquired Lyme disease which morphed into an autoimmune-illness with physical ramifications, credits art as an anchor and extension of her soul.

"Whether it's the paradise of my childhood or the inner workings of my feminine mind, I am transformed by traveling to places of the memory and the soul. For just one fleeting moment, I can feel peaceful and of the earth, or I can try to cut the tethers that bind me to soar and be free."

"The house-shaped panels were my homes, capturing moments of the garden (or elements of a woman) that seemed to be taken from me. I felt like I was being expelled from the earth, life, and, like Dorothy in Oz, I was trying to find my way home again."