Artists are commended for their ability to "keep seeing". They call it attentiveness. My nearsightedness began as a child traipsing out in the woods or along California beaches. Traipsing is still a preferred activity. GK Chesterton describes it "like having a 100 windows open on all sides of your head." Vistas are breath-taking, but I am most enamored with the "little worlds" at my feet--multiple, layered microcosms.
In my Living Water paintings, I never tackle a piece of turf or water larger than 3' x 4'. These smaller scapes seem more digestible & personal to me. I owe a great debt to the book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, for enlarging my awareness of the "twist and mess" all around us. The dusty brown surface photos of Mars have only underscored to me our topographical wealth.
The second section of paintings is abstract work that also taps into this idea of Topography. I build up textures from layers of paint over weeks & even months. If you would run your fingers over the tactile surface of these paintings, you would feel hills and gullies. My watercolor palette emphasizes the colors of the earth: ochre, burnt siena, turquoise, indigo, umber.
In the third section of paintings, Backstory, the pieces are non-representational images that tap into a larger story of all that I see--the idea of macrocosm. JRR Tolkien, in a conversation with CS Lewis, points to a potential relationship between the smaller parts of our world & taking in the whole. He explains that, "everything is unique and ... each thing, however small, when a subject of attention, of necessity becomes the center of the world & requires all knowledge of the entire world to make an adequate explanation of it." As I experience it, microcosm & macrocosm are in dialogue.
My palette in these Backstory pieces are muted grays, blues, mauves, & hints of gold. Sensory experience of the paint on the paper surface continues to dominate, but ideas & concepts sneak in through the backdoor. A larger backstory emerges as I complete the painting. I become a viewer & recipient. As Tolkien says further, this relationship of microcosm/macrocosm can speak to the things beyond "the walls of the world." This final section of pieces represents a direct desire to push on these walls.
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Diane was born & raised in Southern California, and received her B.A. in Studio Art & History from the University of California at Santa Barbara. She presently lives and works in Ann Arbor, Michigan with her family.