A few days ago, former JSU art professor Diana Cadwallader joined us for an artist talk on her show closing in Hammond Hall – From Celestial Tartan’s to Mary’s Mantles.
From Celestial Tartan’s to Mary’s Mantles features Diana’s work with lines and color pencils. She discussed how it was difficult during her time teaching to find time to make art, but that her desire was so strong she began to feel physically ill from not being able to perform her true passion. This forced her to set limitations for herself to help her begin making art again. Finding a small piece from a magazine, she enlarged it and deepened and changed the colors of it to make almost a translation of the original magazine piece. She went even further by wondering what it would look like if straight lines were used. Using different methods of overlapping lines, shapes, colors, and implying movement throughout the work, she contemplated the potential emotional weight of what this work could achieve.
Diana draws inspiration from from many things such as colors in nature, medieval manuscripts, the sky before nightfall, and the story of Mary, Mother of God. One of her pieces entitled Forest is inspired by a Polish primeval forest that is one of the few original forest still standing in Europe today. A couple of other pieces are imaginary maps of forests from the perspective of the sky looking downwards inspired by the maps of her father who was a pilot in Tanzania when she was a child.
She is currently creating works inspired by the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, and a series of works on based on a voyage in the north sea.
We appreciate Diana sharing with us once again, and look forward to seeing her future work.
