Debranne Cingari, artist, adventurer, world traveler, creative visionary, fearless climber, devoted mother, passionate educator, and endlessly fascinating human being.
Meet Debranne Cingari
Fine Artist | Fairfield County Native | Founder of Curated Collective Collages
For over three decades, Debranne Cingari has been represented and exhibited through prestigious galleries in New York City, Nantucket, Palm Beach, Aspen, Texas, Greenwich, and the Hamptons. She continues to be represented by galleries today. Yet over time, she felt called toward something more personal, a closer connection to people and their stories. That longing gave rise to Curated Collective Collages, an intimate artistic practice that transforms children’s artwork into contemporary works of fine art.
Working quietly from her studio in Fairfield, Connecticut, Debranne noticed that life had shifted.
Earlier in her career, Debranne often created commissioned photographic portraits that incorporated children’s artwork, blending fine art photography with the imaginative spirit of childhood. She loved the collaborative process of working directly with children, their creativity, honesty, and uninhibited way of seeing the world. Wanting to return to that intimacy and connection, she expanded her practice to create Curated Collective Collages, a highly personal and collaborative art experience rooted in her professional fine art background and lifelong love of storytelling through art.
Where are you originally from and how long have you been in Fairfield County?
Born and raised in Fairfield County, Debranne has spent 63 years and counting in the place she has always considered her north star. Fairfield has long been the foundation of her creativity, a landscape of beauty, quiet, and belonging that continues to shape her artistic vision. Her home is an art installation in itself, from her glass boathouse to her sculptural door fence and tree fort sleeping quarters tucked high into the treetops. Filled with light,
nature, and stillness, the space reflects the imaginative spirit and artistic sensibility that inspire her every day.
Tell us about your family
Debranne’s love of creativity was deeply shaped by her family. Her sister, Ms. Dee, founded Curiosity Corner Preschool in Fairfield, where Debranne cherished her time as the “special guest artist,”
She is the proud mother of two daughters, both UConn graduates and entrepreneurs. Her eldest daughter, Breanna, launched the successful PR agency Suden PR after losing her job during COVID, quickly building a global client base and leading campaigns connected to projects such as Game of Thrones and New York Fashion Week. She has a gypsy soul and travels the world at a drop of a hat with her husband Chris.
Her youngest daughter, Madison, is the owner and lead speech pathologist of Speech by Madison, a thriving private practice specializing in in home pediatric speech therapy. She delivers personalized, compassionate care directly to families throughout Fairfield County and has built a phenomenal reputation within the community. On top of running her practice, she is a wonderful mommy to Debranne’s beautiful ten month old granddaughter, “Petunia.” If that were not enough, Madison and her husband Nigel also own NPW Photobooths & Decor, delivering high end photo booth services for special events. The girl never stops.
Debranne believes her daughters strong work ethic was shaped by a childhood filled with responsibility, creativity, and resilience. They were encouraged to solve problems, persevere, and trust themselves, and they have carried those lessons into extraordinary lives of their own.The first time they left their homework at home was the last. They quickly learned the importance of being responsible for themselves, planning ahead, staying organized, and understanding that preparation matters.
People would be surprised to know about you
People would be surprised to know just how much ground Debranne has covered, both in life and in art. She has been a photographer since the age of eight, when a Pentax K1000 and a home darkroom sparked a lifelong devotion, launching her into a life built around creativity, curiosity, and connection.
She has climbed Devil’s Tower, Mount Kilimanjaro, El Capitan, and Machu Picchu, walked the Camino, summited many of Colorado’s fourteeners, crossed the Presidential Range, and ice climbed glaciers in Alaska. She also placed first in a bike race up Doi Inthanon in Thailand, still one of the most challenging and unforgettable rides of her life. Most recently, she was a passenger at a NASCAR racetrack, thrilled by the experience of flying around the track at high speeds. Apparently, a love of adrenaline is a pattern.
She has also driven across the country and spent many months on the road camping in a teardrop camper, including a journey all the way to Alaska with an her amazing travel partner, where the adventures never seemed to end.
Her work has been exhibited at the Grand Palais in Paris and in six exhibitions throughout Italy. She holds Italian citizenship, and her art lives in private and public collections around the world. She worked at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she served as a photographer for the Met Gala for many years, along with projects for major cultural institutions and clients such as Cantor Fitzgerald, Deloitte & Touche, Bruce Museum, Neuberger Museum of Art, and Greenwich Magazine. She became known as the “it girl” for special events photography back in the day.
Alongside her fine art practice, she hosts private sound baths at her lakeside studio through Bath’d Sound + Stillness, creating intimate summer gatherings that invite friends into music, water, nature, and stillness, offering grounding, presence, and connection to like minded seekers. She welcome intimate gatherings with a few close friends to be immersed in sound + stillness.
She holds a master’s degree from Sacred Heart University and has taught art and photography in the Fairfield school system and at Landmark Academy.
This year alone, she created 48 new pieces for the galleries representing her work, including The 21 Club Collection, a photographic essay of Nantucket available at www.DebranneCingari.com.
And the icing on the cake is Debranne welcomed a brand new bouncing baby granddaughter. That joy, along with the deep sense of family that has always shaped her life, inspired her to finally bring something long in the making into the light. She has been creating deeply personal collage based works for her own children and family for years, quietly, lovingly, and intuitively, and now, after years of planning and waiting for the right moment, she is honored to introduce Curated Collective Collages to the community.
This is not a new idea, it is a polished and purposeful offering that represents many years of experience, practice, and a lifetime of seeing the world through an artist’s eye, turning children’s artwork, family memories, and everyday treasures into sophisticated contemporary works of art that belong in the home, not hidden away in boxes. She is excited to share this deeply personal chapter with Fairfield County families and welcome them into her creative world.
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One thing you wish someone would have told you about motherhood
That the love would physically hurt. It goes beyond your heart and into your soul, overtaking every fiber of your being. The intensity of it is something words cannot capture.
“I was a hands on mother, always doing silly, fun, and creative things. I loved bringing lunch to their school or taking a personal day off to visit the Beardsley Zoo. I wanted more time with them and wanted them to experience life outside of the classroom. They would come home and I would create activities for them and their friends. Their childhood brought me such profound joy.”
“And then they grow up and move away, and you are left with this deep tender ache. You miss them in a way that surprises you. You yearn for those ordinary moments, those silly afternoons, laying on the couch watching Barney, the pitter patter of little feet, the sound of laughter filling your home. Nobody tells you that part, that the longing never quite goes away.”
“And then you have a grandchild, and you catch yourself calling her by your daughter’s name. That says everything.”
What’s your favorite thing about raising a family in Fairfield?
“We could walk everywhere, to the Memorial Day parade, Dairy Queen, creating gravestone rubbings, the beaches, lakes, bike riding trails, and hiking paths. Fairfield gives us the freedom to truly be together outdoors.” I have a bank, grocery store, deli, church, farm , pickleball courts and ice cream shop all in walking distance, what more can a girl ask for?
Best mom hack that made life easier
Teaching her children to cook.
Home-cooked meals were always very important to me, followed closely by delicious desserts. I always wanted to spend as much time with my kids as possible, so the easiest way to do that was in the kitchen, cooking together and freezing meals ahead of time. Each fall before school began, we would make huge batches of chicken soup, lentil soup, gravy, chicken parmesan, meatloaf, chicken pot pie, and so many other family favorites to stock the freezer for the busy months ahead. It saved time, but more importantly, it kept everything homemade and meaningful.
“Every meal was made with love, and the girls were such a big part of it. During the holidays, my daughters always loved making cookies well before the holiday rush so we could simply enjoy being together and play.”
To this day, I still live by that rhythm, so my cooking time is pretty minimal now, which works perfectly because I’m usually in the studio about 14 hours a day anyway.
Tell us about your business
Curated Collective Collages
The work begins with something deeply familiar, children’s drawings, handwritten notes, and meaningful family keepsakes that are often tucked away rather than displayed. Through her process, Debranne Cingari transforms these personal materials into refined contemporary compositions that allow memory and storytelling to live within the home.
In Fairfield County, she offers a White Glove concierge service, personally visiting each home to thoughtfully curate materials, collaborate on creative elements, and consider scale and placement within the space before bringing everything back to her studio for transformation. Once complete, the work is returned to the home, with the option of professional installation through an art handler for hanging and placement.
For Debranne, the process is just as meaningful as the finished work. She genuinely looks forward to meeting each family, spending time in their space, getting to know the rhythm of the home, the kids, the stories, the everyday life that surrounds the work. It’s not transactional it’s personal. There’s a kind of old-fashioned ease to it, like things used to be, when people came into your home, sat at your table, and took the time to really understand what mattered before anything was made.
Tell us about the different services you offer
Curated Collective Collages creates contemporary works using children’s artwork, handwritten notes, and meaningful family keepsakes that are often stored away rather than seen, enjoyed, and lived with.
“My philosophy has always been, use it or lose it. The things we treasure most should live around us and become part of our everyday experience, not hidden away and forgotten.”
Each piece becomes a way to preserve memory while creating something visually refined, deeply personal, and designed for the home.
Alongside Curated Collective Collages, Debranne’s background in fine art and photography allows her to offer a wider range of highly personal creative services. She creates fine art still life photography using cherished objects from clients’ homes, heirlooms, and meaningful personal items, transforming them into elegant photographic works that celebrate beauty, memory, and personal history.
Services include:
• White Glove Concierge Collage Services in Fairfield County, follow for expansion into Westchester and New Haven County
• Contemporary Collage Artwork from Children’s Art and Family Memorabilia
• Fine Art Still Life Photography of Personal Objects and Heirlooms • Custom Framing and Presentation Design
• Installation Coordination
• Collaborative Family Art Experiences
• In-Studio Private Art Sessions for Children (One-on-One Guidance)
Each project is highly collaborative and carefully curated, resulting in contemporary works of art meant to be lived with, not stored away.
Debranne often describes herself in one word: curious. Curious about people, places, stories, and the small, fleeting moments that make life feel meaningful. She is a true lover of life, energized by connection, conversation, and the unexpected beauty found in everyday encounters.
She is a self-taught visual artist and photographer, shaped not by traditional art school training, but by a lifelong instinct to observe, engage, and respond to the world around her. Her work is rooted in presence, honoring the shared moment that unfolds between artist and subject.
She takes pride in composition, in the quiet art of framing light, emotion, and fleeting moments into something that feels both intentional and alive.
Her background includes a degree in Media Studies and Advertising, along with a Master’s degree in Education from Sacred Heart University, blending
storytelling, visual communication, and a natural ability to guide and connect with others.
And somewhere between all of that… she’s usually the one stopping to take the picture, start the conversation, or turn a simple moment into a story worth keeping.
She began her professional path in real estate, advertising, and interior design, developing model residences for condominium and apartment communities along the Eastern Seaboard, and working as an architectural photographer documenting model units and lobbies for marketing and advertising campaigns.
At 22, she left the design field to open her own photography studio. With no formal business training, she built it from the ground up, eventually leading a small team specializing in weddings, special events, and bar and bat mitzvahs.
Alongside her studio work, she completed freelance projects for organizations including Deloitte & Touche, Cantor Fitzgerald, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Neuberger Museum, Greenwich Magazine, and The Bruce Museum. Known at the time for her high-energy event work, she became a familiar presence photographing parties, cultural events, and lifestyle commissions throughout the region. After becoming a mother, her focus naturally shifted, and she began working more closely with local public relations firms and on corporate lifestyle portraiture.
Over time, her work naturally evolved into the fine art world, where her practice expanded into landscape, travel, and portrait photography, represented in galleries and fine art exhibitions.
Today, her creative life continues to expand through personal projects like Curated Collective Collage, which brings her an almost uncontainable joy —transforming children’s artwork, family memories, and meaningful fragments of life into layered, contemporary works of art that can be lived with rather than stored away.
She reflects on her relationship to art simply:
“Art is everything to me—my love, my life, my grounding force. I can’t imagine life without it. I feel deeply grateful to live a life where I create every day.”
Best advice for moms balancing career and raising a family
Balancing a career and raising a family will always come with challenges, but Debranne has never believed in the idea of “mom guilt.”
“I believe it takes a village and real support. A family raises each other. It’s never just one person carrying everything.”
In her home, there was a strong sense of mutual respect for one another’s time, responsibilities, creativity, and ambitions. When her daughters were young, they often accompanied her to photo shoots and studio jobs.
“Yes, it could be chaotic at times, but I wanted them with me. I wanted them to see what it looked like to build something from the ground up, to work hard, solve problems, and stay committed to what you love. They learned responsibility and resilience simply by being included and honestly, they became wonderful little assistants.”
She also believes deeply in the importance of stepping away long enough to reset and recharge, something she credits with helping her stay present both creatively and personally.
“There’s no such thing as perfect balance. Life moves in seasons. But when families support one another with love, respect, flexibility, and understanding, it becomes possible for everyone to grow individually while still growing together.”
What most influenced you to be the mother you are today?
“I believe my children shaped the mother I became. I always knew I was meant to be a mother—it was my first calling. I wanted nothing more than to be a mother. My children were my world, my life, my breath, the center of my universe.
I wove that love into my art, capturing their lives as they unfolded. They were my muse, my constant source of inspiration, and truly my greatest teachers. I loved every millisecond of raising those girls, every chaotic, beautiful, exhausting, joy-filled moment of it.
Even now, I can still close my eyes and remember their little voices, their laughter, the smell of their skin after a bath, the feeling of holding them close. Those years never really leave you. They become part of who you are forever.
If you quiet yourself and truly see the world through your children’s eyes, you realize they are not only growing under your care you are growing within theirs.”
What advice would you share with a new mom or other moms?
Nobody puts it better than Kahlil Gibran in On Children “On Children
Kahlil Gibran
1883 –1931
And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, Speak to us of Children.
And he said:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far. Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness; For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.
One last thought
A Life Surrounded by Beauty
For Debranne, beauty is not a luxury, it is a way of life. She feels most at home surrounded by art, nature, family, and stillness. In her Fairfield home and studio, she has created the very life she once searched the world to find: one filled with peace, creativity, meaning, and belonging.
Fairfield is finally the place she calls home, where she can rest her head high above in her beloved tree fort or tucked quietly within her glass house, surrounded by light, trees, and inspiration. It is here that she continues to create, offer immersive sound baths, and invite others into her world through artwork that is intimate, intentional, and deeply rooted in the beauty of everyday life.
Through Curated Collective Collages, Debranne transforms children’s artwork, family ephemera, photographs, handwritten notes, and treasured keepsakes into contemporary works of art meant to be lived with and loved daily, not hidden away in boxes or forgotten in storage. Her philosophy is
simple: use it or lose it. Life moves quickly, and the memories that matter most deserve to be seen, celebrated, and woven into the fabric of our homes.
To Debranne, children’s artwork holds something sacred, the innocence of childhood itself. There is a purity, freedom, and honesty in the way a child sees the world, and preserving that spirit within a home becomes a daily reminder of joy, imagination, and love. In a world that can sometimes feel overwhelming or uncertain, she believes there is comfort in returning to innocence, wonder, and the beauty of simpler things.
She warmly welcomes clients to meet with her personally to discuss their collage visions and to share in the creative process itself. Whether creating a single meaningful piece or building a collection over time, the possibilities are endless. Imagine creating an 18-by-18 collage each year, eventually joining them together into one extraordinary evolving story of a family’s life.
Because what is better than being surrounded by beautiful things? Art has the power to comfort us, connect us, and remind us of who we are and what we cherish most. And for Debranne, creating beauty that holds memory, emotion, and soul is not simply her work, it is her life’s calling.
After all, she is an artist… and in her world, the skies are purple. And your children art brings joy to our universe!
Local Favorites
Dinner with family
A picnic at home
Date night
Artisan Restaurant
Family time
Fairfield Beach
Outdoors
Hiking, biking, and visiting Little River Farm where she enjoys the chickens, fresh vegetables, and rhythms of the land
Gruel Britannia