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Leah Oates: How did you become an artist, and did you know early on that you would be in the arts, or did you begin as something else? Were there other artists in your family? |
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Dianne Bowen, interviewed by Leah Oates
Leah Oates: How did you become an artist, and did you know early on that you would be in the arts, or did you begin as something else? Were there other artists in your family?
Dianne Bowen: In the mid-60s, my parents were part of a movement of young artists moving out to Brooklyn, buying and renovating brownstones for studio space and room to raise families. I can recall many parties and get-togethers with pretty lively banter about the art world and all its facets. Always an interesting cast of characters around ready for a good chat, which could run late into the night. In many ways, these were really the groundwork of my art education and some really great memories. There are quite a few artists in my family working in various mediums whose influence helped me develop a critical eye by a very young age. Family visits usually included a harsh but constructive critique that definitely gave me the tough skin I needed. It’s not personal. It’s simply a direct, open dialogue that helped me understand what I was doing and the relationship, sacrifice, attention, and responsibility between myself and the work.
Becoming an artist was something I knew by the age of 6 without question. Honestly, I never really thought about it in terms of “becoming” but more that it revealed itself early on. Drawing or painting on any surface I could led to my washing the walls a few times. My mother was pretty great about that. She’d just find other things for me to draw on. After being selected for a gifted and talented art program in elementary school, my fate was sealed. Beginning my career right after graduating from the School of Visual Arts, I had my first one-person show at a gallery uptown simply titled Sculptures and Paintings. Art school was pretty tough since I had married in my second year, started a family, worked part-time, and carried a full schedule at school. Thankfully I had some pretty great professors: May Stevens, Lucio Pozzi, Jackie Winsor, and Micheal Goldberg. Sometimes a person can save your life and never even know it.
LO: What is your working process? Each artist is so different when it comes to approaching his/her work. How do you approach your creation?
DB: Something catches my eye on a simple walk. It’s usually something very mundane, overlooked, that inspires me. I spend hours thinking about it, mulling it over in my head scribbling notes to myself or writing poems. My current work was the result of clearing my studio wall and staring at it for hours just thinking about where my work was going. It all comes together in my head first, and then finding surface materials begins the conversation. While I have a clear direction, the intense process of the work is where it really begins to evolve. There have been times when I’ve worked on a piece for three days straight without stopping or sleeping. I think about my work, dream about it every moment. It’s like the Fourth of July in my head, materials, thoughts, puzzles forming all day every day, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
LO: What are the themes of your work?
DB: Fragility, language, and connection have always been the focus of my work. A line, the simplest and most complicated marks, the earliest marks made by humans in a cave to communicate. It’s the intimate language of life.
LO: Who are your favorite artists and why?
DB: I’ve quite a few but recently I’ve really been inspired by Gego, Doreen McCarthy, Franklin Evans, Chris Coffin, Tony Feher, and John Cage. Why would be a very long answer. In short, the way these artists work with material, traditional or not, creates thoughtful and intriguing conversations with their work. Gego is one artist who really changed the perspective of what drawing “is.” I have a catalogue from the Drawing Center of her work in which she states: she brings drawing off the wall and into the environment. Doreen McCarthy’s work has a poetic and elegant quality which converses with the materials and the space. Her inflatable sculptures have been my favorite pieces. The large works, which are mainly transparent with slips of color, have a unique ability to hold the space without overbearing it. The shadows from the works appear as drawings in shadows around them.
LO: Why do you think art is important for the world, and why is it important for you as an individual artist?
DB: Art reflects and holds our humanity. It documents our culture, challenges our decisions and impacts on the world, and reminds us the greatest gift we have as a species is imagination and reasoning. Human beings have the capacity and ability to create the most wondrous or horrific depending on influence. I make art because it’s just in me to do it. It’s how I look at the world and connect to it. You get it or not, it’s subjective after all, but when a piece of art truly “works,” it stays with you, leaves you with an emotion, a thought, a new perspective. It’s food for the soul. In the future economic climate, its necessity will hopefully become more apparent and supported.
LO: As a longtime New Yorker who has seen changes in the city and the local art scene, what advice would you give to other artists about being an artist in New York City?
DB: You have to find your community. The best thing to do is get out there and talk about each other’s work. Helping another artist does not hurt. You have to do your research when looking for a gallery. Read the fine print. There are some really good nonprofit and commercial spaces which offer programs to help you get the information you need. The Cue Art Foundation has a program called “Meeting Artists’ Needs,” which covers a gambit from filing taxes to presenting work. There are also very good registries to add your work. Nurture Art and the Artist Space Adam Sandler File are very good. New York is the hardest place to survive and there’s a good reason. Almost every artist in the world dreams of being here at one time or another, so the competition is fierce. You have to be a bit tough-skinned. Just do the work and be persistent. The more you know, the better off you are.
