Dissolving by Diane Reeves
Map of My Mind by Diane Reeves
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Fevered Dreams is based on the Covid-19 pandemic. All of the photography was created in isolation. A photograph is a moment in time: a wedding, a graduation, a family reunion, a baby shower, documentation of a vacation. Covid erased all of that. What was a photo now? Nothing to mark time with. Nothing to remember. So I combined instant photography with long drawn out needlework. It was one way, my way, of coping. I had never been out of work, never collected unemployment, never been locked out of my favorite coffee shops, never been unable to see my friends or pass someone on the street without wondering if they have Covid. I felt like a hothouse flower, locked in a greenhouse for my safety, longing to be outside and free.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Born in Los Angeles, CA, my explorations started out roaming the unbuilt areas of the neighborhood. I would climb trees and watch the dairy cows roaming for hours. My brother and I would clamber down the dirt sides of the flood control ditch and collect tadpoles to put in buckets and watch them turn into frogs. We went to the neighborhood school, climbed to the rooftop and enjoyed the skyhigh views. We were feral children and the freedom was intoxicating.
I’m sure this freedom has informed my trip through art. I have always created artwork that I wanted to see, not what was fashionable. As a photographer I started out “fixing” images of life on black and white film. Life seen and unseen, or perhaps just unnoticed, has been my subject. I started adding toning and oil paint to my images, changing their meaning in sometimes subtle, sometimes radical ways. This has led to where I am today, printing on hand made collage papers and sewing on my canvases.
Self-taught, I never miss a chance to learn more through seminars and classes. Active in local arts organizations, I’m currently a member of Destination Art: Torrance and The Textile Artists of LA. I have taught children’s art classes in the City of Torrance’s Cultural Arts Department for the past 20 years. I have also taught Museum art classes for the Torrance Art Museum and Torrance Main Library.
EXHIBITION GALLERY
