Mad Island Artist Gallery
  • What I do
  • About Me
  • Paintings
  • Jewelry: Past to Present
  • Sculptures and Mobiles
  • MOSAIC works
  • MadIsland Artist Blog
  • My Etsy Shop
  • My Books

ABOUT ME.....

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ABOUT ME: Diane Marie
I'm a full time artist, living in Wisconsin on Madeline Island in the summer, and in Uptown Minneapolis in the winter.
My first home on the island (in 1996) was a tent in the "town park".  After that, I bought my own land, and fixed up an old schoolbus that I lived in for nine years.  I now live with my husband in an old, twice recycled island house in the summer, and a Minneapolis apartment with studio in the winter.
I have been an artist since I was barely able to walk by myself.  I got my start on a chalkboard that my parents leaned against a table on the floor, when they noticed my careful and prolonged scrutiny of pictures in National Geographic.  My first drawing was a bin of potatoes, when I was studying the photos in an article about Idaho.  From there I moved on to watercolor, which I used very heavily, and painted almost exclusively in black and white, so the paintings looked like ink paintings.  I sold my first two when I was nine, for $25 each.
Now, I paint in oil, acrylic, nailpolish, sharpie marker, layered spraypaint, and yarn.    I also do collage, mosaic, multimedia, mobiles and sculpture.
 About ten years ago, I started making jewelry from flotsam and jetsam--mostly beach treasure:  small odd bits of metal hardware, pieces of driftwood, beach glass, ceramic and lake stones.   I often incorporate all sorts of collected items such as hardware, copper electrical wire scraps, buttons and bits of vintage jewelry into all types of my work, as well as things I repurpose from broken or discarded odds and ends.  It's pretty rustic and off-beat, and not everyone "gets it".   That's OK-- the ones that do often tend to be kindred spirits, and therefore friends!
  I like my work to speak of abandoned places, and the things left behind by the people who lived there.  Ghostly.  Neglected, and a little haunted.  There is beauty in that, to me.

I dream in color, and often, the art I create comes from my dreams.  I literally see it, already created, before I've even begun to work on it.  The problem is often trying to recreate what I saw, but I have yet to be stumped.  The fact that I am known for creating art with odd found and salvaged objects often leads people to bring me strange items and challenge me to find a way to use it in my work.  This adds to the fun and challenge of what I do.
I have a lifelong passion for reading and also writing--poetry, personal narrative, songwriting, and the occasional stand-up comedy routine.  My brain is like a black lab--easily distracted, and always wandering off on some new adventure--and everything I do reflects that.  It is not unusual for me to have multiple projects in progress all that the same time.
I am over 90% right-brained, according to all the "tests".   True to right-brained form, I am absurdly noctornal, and have absolutely NO sense of time.  

 I also make really GOOD pie.

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Painting "plein aire" street-side in the Santa Fe gallery district, November 2013.  Painting in photo is "Trinidad Butte".  I also painted "Aztec Sun" and "Up and Down the avenue", and started "Three Crows" and "Flight of the Thunderbird" while in Santa Fe.  (see paintings page)

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At work in my mobile studio at Tom's Burned Down cafe. It was crowded on this day, so I was Down in the dining corridor. You never know WHERE I might turn up!
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  • What I do
  • About Me
  • Paintings
  • Jewelry: Past to Present
  • Sculptures and Mobiles
  • MOSAIC works
  • MadIsland Artist Blog
  • My Etsy Shop
  • My Books