Diana Adams - Studio Practice
Before starting the Advanced Diploma Programme, I was working as a full-time artist painting representational images of the NZ landscape in my own contemporary style. I had been doing this for 12 solid years and I felt a bit like I’d painted myself into a corner. I was successful with my work and could make a living out of it but it had become all too much the same and not challenging any more.
That is why I chose to do the Advanced Diploma Programme. I have never had any tertiary training in art. I did Bursary art at school and then did a degree in Linguistics and followed that with a Bachelor
of Landscape Architecture. I worked as a Landscape Architect for a few years before my art took over and I started painting full time.
The work I have been doing during the past two years on the Advanced Diploma Programme has been very exploratory in its nature. I have been given free licence to use any materials in any way to produce
art. It is an incredible feeling after using paint for so long - to be able to explore other media to see how they perform. My work has developed using materials bought from the DIY shops. At the moment I am using these materials to describe light and dark i.e. chiaroscuro.
My work has changed enormously from before. The medium has changed completely from paint and canvas to any product that helps describe what I want to say. At the moment I’m using pegboard, clothes line wire, silicone rubber, tile spacers and black seal. I no longer create images that represent something; the work speaks for itself as itself.
My creative process involves a lot of ‘doing’ now. I spend hours in the studio just fiddling around with various products to see how they work under different conditions. It’s experimental, like a scientist (only not so orderly!). Previously I would use looking, sketching and thinking as my creative process.
I still do this as well, but I certainly spend a lot more time using my hands while thinking.
I have used a lot of the resources for the Advanced Diploma. I have read all the readings and listened to the podcasts associated with them (more than once). I have found that the more I do this the more I get out of them and the greater my understanding of the subject. Gradually it has altered the way I think about art as I build more knowledge. I enjoy looking at other people’s work on the Workroom and I am always startled by the diversity of creativity that is posted. It helps to see that you come to art with your own experience and ideas and everybody interprets the world differently. There is good art and bad art but not ‘wrong’ art. My mentor is the most valuable resource. I look forward to our discussions and his feedback.
My mentor has been essential in the whole process. I noticed early on that he is amazingly encouraging and never discouraging. I have been in educational environments where criticism is given in a negative way and I know from experience it leaves you feeling low and discouraged. My mentor never does this. He does the opposite and it leaves me feeling inspired and ready to create more work. He challenges me to think beyond where I am thinking and stretch my mind and creativity to a new level. It has been essential to talk about my work on a regular basis and, as time has gone on, to be able to describe what is going on in the work and why that is important (still working on this but I’m improving).
During the programme I have discovered more new materials and more new techniques than I can count! Some are more successful than others but all were great fun to discover.
I am on my way to producing a body of work. It involves choosing works that go together in their ability to describe what is working in them that might be challenging a convention or furthering an idea that exists within art. Not all of the ideas I have created over the past year or so will go together in this way. I have narrowed down my subject to dealing with light and dark (chiaroscuro). Now I am pushing ideas I had earlier as far as I can with this idea in mind. The works all need to say something about light, dark, contrast, balance. I’m hoping to get a group of works together that can say enough about this subject that it tells a larger story together than one work would do on its own. I hope to get the viewers of the works to see the connection and then have a good think about what is happening in the works.