DI PINI 

Though born on Miami Beach, Florida, Di spent much of her early life living high in the Andes Mountains in Cuzco, Peru.  There she grew up surrounded by nationally acclaimed musicians, poets, singers and great painters such as Solomon and Armando Lastarria.  Di studied pre-medicine at the University of Miami and married a highly decorated veteran.  Di lived and traveled extensively throughout Central and South America studying different Indian cultures and art often accompanying her husband on anti-terrorist missions. 

An ever present yet unexplainable desire led to her first efforts at painting while living in El Salvador. After the birth of her first child, Di returned to live in Peru and soon after a mission to Afghanistan her husband mysteriously died. As a young widow and mother she began several businesses including an organic fruit farm in South Miami.  Though sometimes working at three occupations, she continued to paint steadily, exhibiting in galleries in Coconut Grove and South Florida.   In 1992 Hurricane Andrew destroyed her home, farm and every possession she and her children had as well as her entire collection of art including her own works. 

Through encouragement from friends on Pine Ridge Lakota Reservation she packed up the kids and animals and lived in a remote area of the Reservation in the Badlands and attended Oglala Lakota College studying Sioux language, culture and history and teaching at the college. Her involvement with the Tiospaye movement, a traditionalist philosophy of the elders on the Reservation caused a backlash of harassment by the Bureau of Indian Affairs forcing her to leave in order to protect her family and animals. 

Relocating near the U.S.-Mexican border, her work gained recognition in the Latin community through support by the well-respected cultural arts magazine Mesquite Review on its cover and features.  Soon she was honored as one of six artists recognized and invited to exhibit at the International Cine de Sol Latin Film Festival. 

Dis latest series of nautical and other marine subjects including the classic J-class yachts and Americas Cup racers are on exhibit at the International Village Gallery on San Franciscos famous waterfront.  Her body of work encompasses a wide range in style from expressionism to realism and varied subjects include wildlife, Native American, iconoclastic, nautical and exotic cultural figurative themes.