Dixie Cavigli received her formal education from California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo California. She study Gerontology at USC, and holds a Masters of Art degree. Ms.Cavigli is an award winning artist who teaches drawing and painting within a nurturing environment. Dixie draws her strength from her children, extended family,and friends throughout the community,and through the support of fellow artists. Ms. Cavigli continues to gain praise and recognition for her artistry. Recently, one art critic described her art to have“compositional rhythmsandboldcoloration” creating interesting, and thought-provoking images.

Dixie thinks of her use of color in this way. “I paint with the attention of brightening someone’s life. Shapes and colors dominate my work with acrylics.” Ms. Cavigli was a therapist through the San Luis Obispo County Drug and Alcohol Services Department. She specifically found her work with incarcerated women to be the most rewarding experience of her life. Her work as a therapist inspired the series of red paintings offered in this exhibition. Ms. Cavigli believes her work with these women helped her understand the fervent wish of these mothers was to go home to their children.

The red in her paintings represents the hearts of all mothers. Dixie uses the different hues to reveal the mother’s heart when she is separated from her child. Each painting expresses the different emotional separation these women experience without their children. Dixie described her interpretation of her work this way, “ A mother’s heart lays upon her chest, exposed and vulnerable.” Ms. Cavigli continues to teach using the blank canvas as a vehicle into the window of life.