My recent work explores the dark, melancholy, and untamed parts of our thoughts. There is value in visiting these mysterious and chaotic places. They are a source of power, imagination, and deep personal identity.
'What Dreams May Come' is a series of linoleum cuts that are portraits of older women. These portraits suggest the complexity of their internal lives informed by years of experience. The women's faces and hands reflect the shadows of their past and their endurance of melancholy and loss. Their beautiful and deep appearance also suggests their individual resilience and grace.
The content of amusements often reveals the stuff of nightmares. 'Carousel Horse in Armor' presents a frozen creature, in terror, traveling in endless circles. The print speaks to both the symbolic and emotional meaning of a classic American amusement.
My present work in linoleum, embraces the fluid and responsive quality of the material. Honing my own cutting tools from found metal and broken dental picks has allowed me to explore a very personal and delicate mark. In this way I am able to draw with light and shadow into a velvet black to address the complex nature of my subject.
BIOGRAPHY
Donna Diamond was born and raised in New York City. She attended Boston University School of Art and received a BFA in Sculpture. Encouraged by Robert Blackburn, she pursued printmaking at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop.
Creating monotypes and drawings, Ms Diamond went on to make art for books, where her work met with critical success. The books in which her art appears have won numerous awards including The Newbery Medal, The Bank Street College Irma Simonton Black Award, The Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, and the Golden Kite Award.
Fascinated by the power of narrative, Ms. Diamond completed a suite of seventeen paintings that work sequentially to express a psychological drama. The paintings were published as a wordless book called THE SHADOW by Candlewick Press in 2010.
In 2011, Ms. Diamond received the BRIO Award for Printmaking from the Bronx Council on the Arts. She recently participated in the New York Print Club's 'Artists' Showcase'. In 2008, She received the BRIO Award for Book Arts. In the past year, two of her linoleum cuts were published and exhibited by Cannonball Press. Additionally, four of her recent monotypes will be published in an upcoming issue of Carrier Pigeon Magazine of Illustrated Fiction and Fine Art.
Two of Ms. Diamond's linoleum cuts have recently been on exhibit at the Ben Shahn Gallery at Paterson University in 'American Impressions 2012'. In the past year her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums across the United States that include The International Print Center New York, The Visual Arts Center at the University of Texas in Austin, The Allegra LaViola Gallery in New York City, The Robert Blackburn 20/20 Gallery in New York City, The Sacred Gallery in New York City, The Washington Printmakers Gallery in Maryland, The PowerHouse Arena in DUMBO, The Longwood Gallery in the Bronx, The Joslyn Art Museum in Nebraska, The Space Gallery in Maine, The Mad Art Gallery in St Louis, and The Rush Gallery in Chelsea, New York.
Ms. Diamond is currently creating prints and books in her studio and at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop.
