Images: Frogs a go go (left) and If it hits the roof, it's a homer (right)

Diane Walker-Gladney - Thursday, February 7, 2013

7-9pm, Center for the Visual Arts, Denton
Free for members; $3 for guests

The February VAST meeting will feature Diane Walker-Gladney. Walker-Gladney is a contemporary painter whose work is often noted for its intricate layers, sensual textures, and playful content. A native of Connecticut with her Master's degree in Art, Diane is an accomplished painter whose work has been featured in New American Paintings and can be found in numerous public and private collections including the Longview Museum of Fine Art.

Walker-Gladney resides in Flower Mound, Texas and is represented by Norwood Flynn Gallery in Dallas and M.A. Doran Gallery in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She was named a Hunting Art Prize finalist three times and her work is currently featured in a solo exhibition at the Longview Museum of Fine Arts through February 23rd.

About her work, Walker-Gladney states:

Living in close proximity to town, in the quiet more simple times of the fifties, I walked Gilbert Street perhaps thousands of times. The rustling of multicolored leaves as I kicked through voluminous piles created a natural symphony. the cracks on the undulating sidewalk, the texture of the stonewall and the small granite cornerstone that marked the end of the picturesque Connecticut street and all vied for my attention. I would frequent the library and borrow Good Night Mooncountless times just to unlock the mystery of how the illustrator portrayed night. The wallpaper store with its’ endless supply of books, let me bask in pages of colors and intricate patterns. The fabric store became a place of great passion for the perfect match of thread and material. These experiences of my young life are deeply catalogued in my memory. They formed the framework for my artistic growth and provided a lifelong awareness of, as Pissarro so brilliantly wrote, “… beautiful things in humble places.” Our memories tell our tales and form who we are and who we are meant to be.

Childhood led to college, marriage, children and a move to Texas. Motherhood, of course, changed artmaking, but the cataloging of memories continued. I moved from watercolor, a medium I could put down easily when my children woke from their naps, to acrylics, as they became High School bound. Now as they are off on their own, I continue to document memories. The images have become more abstract as I age, but age teaches us that although the visual fades, the visceral remains.

When I visit to this very day, as I walk down Gilbert St. I am flooded by the memories that form the armature of my life. Although my experiences have moved to Texas, when I walk, I observe, when I experience, I catalog. It’s still the same.