Description
ARTIST STATEMENT
What interests me is the moment. How each restless moment holds an entire world in its light before growing bored and drifting toward something new. What interests me is capturing that moment – the way light falls on the planes of the model’s form in the studio or how its cast shadows play across the Northern California landscape. And each moment calls for something different: canvas and oils, pen and ink, charcoal and paper. My work tells the story about a single moment. But the story told is different for each person’s unique and singular experience.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Restlessness and exploration is a theme in Diane Warner-Wang’s life and in her art. Born in Texas, she spent her childhood in Southern California and as a young woman lived for a time in Iran. Diane, now living in the San Francisco Bay Area, has a masters degree in experimental psychology from Southern Methodist University. With a deep interest in statistics, programming and network engineering, Diane’s primary career was spent in the technology sector as a Senior Network Engineer for Worldcom/British Telecom/MCI. In midlife she changed course, returned to school and after training moved into biotech. She is now a Research Associate a Diagnostics for the Real World.
There’s a clear trajectory and connection in Diane’s call to biotech and the direction of her painting. Ten years ago, when she studied plein air technique and figurative drawing with Jim Smyth and Brigitte Curt she knew the analytical, thinking foundation they were providing was solid. But it was Symth’s figurative gesture drawing classes – quick sketches of the human form sometimes drawn with stick and ink – that gave Diane the freedom to trust her instincts and intuition. Further study with Ray Mendieta, Melinda Cootsona, Ovanes Berberian and Oliver Sin supported her exploration around maintaining the equilibrium between the analytical mind and creative impulse. This work brought her to abstraction – and in particular figurative abstraction.
Diane Warner-Wang’s paintings can be found in collections across the United States and in Europe. Her work has received numerous awards in exhibits at the Pacific Art League of Palo Alto, NUMU of Los Gatos’ Greater Bay Area Open, the Sebastopol Center for the Arts and The Salon at Triton Museum in Santa Clara, California. She is regularly juried into exhibits with Artist Alliance, art-fluent, the California Art Club (CAC), SFVACC/SCORE in Los Angeles and the O’Hanlon Center for the Arts in Mill Valley, California.
© Diane Warner-Wang