DIANNE MARTIN
DIANNE MARTIN
"Flying in September"
Hand Embellished Monotypes
THE ARTIST TALKS ABOUT HER WORK...
My work begins most often with an oil monotype on paper using bits of nature as part of the printmaking process. A monotype is an image made on an etching press that is unique in the way that a painting or drawing is unique: therefore the term "mono (one) type".
After each image is made on the press I begin to develop it further using other materials. I am looking for that initial image to grow into a compelling visual world that bridges reality and imagination. Birds are often inhabitants but not as particular species. Birds bring life, grace and, at times, conflict to this visual world.
The pieces of nature in my work come from, at times, unlikely places. I live and maintain my studio in Long Island City, still a mostly industrial part of New York City. Oftentimes the twigs, weeds and feathers used in my work are picked up on the street outside my studio door. However I have also been a part time resident of the North Fork of Long Island for many years. That landscape of creeks, bays, beaches and fields has become an equally important source.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Dianne Martin makes images out of parts of the natural world that people discard or crush underfoot. These small rescued elements of nature and the physical world grow together to evoke the magic and restorative qualities of the natural world.
Her work has been exhibited in commercial galleries, alternative spaces and artist run galleries in New York City as well as on the North Fork of Long Island. She often holds Open Studio events in her Long Island City studio, showing the work in the place where it is made.
Ms. Martin's work is represented in many corporate and private collections, including Pfizer, Pepsico, David Rockefeller Jr., Credit Suisse First Boston and the Manhattan Musicians Union. She has been a resident fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in Sweetbrier, Virginia. Artist memberships include the Manhattan Graphics Center, the National Association of Women Artists and the East End Arts Center.
She is listed in Who's Who in American Art and received a BFA degree in painting from The Rhode Island School of Design and an MA degree in painting from The University of Iowa.
