ABOUT ME.....
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.
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)
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!
