Diane Salamon is an abstract painter and advocate for the arts. She has exhibited extensively. Her colorful, lyrical paintings are included in many collections including the State Collection of Oklahoma.
Artist Statement
Artists tend to avoid statements about our work and in so doing we either remain mysterious or our work is misunderstood. I always keep in mind that my paintings are 50% what I meant to express and the other 50% belongs to the viewer. This was very apparent several years ago when I painted an exhibit for the State of Oklahoma for its Centennial year. In that exhibit I included a self-portrait with collaged maps as a background. To the art critic that reviewed my exhibit the portrait was showing places I had visited. In reality the collaged maps were places I had lived while growing up.
My life journey began before birth with my parents relocating while my mother was expecting me. The relocations continued almost every year of my life until I turned 18 . I knew that I needed to go to college and understood my parents needed to continue their own life search without me. They wandered off to another city, and I stayed behind working full-time and attending university classes at night.
What I learned from frequent moving is that every place has the same cast of characters--just with different accents, styles and geographical surroundings. It taught me that most of us suffer and worry in the same way. Most of us are trying to live good lives, and many of us manage to do so despite life’s obstacles. It also taught me we quickly get bored hearing and thinking about suffering and seek relief in ways that are sometimes good and sometimes destructive. Suffering, life confusion and the general anxiety and chaos of life is in all of my paintings. But, that is not the purpose of my work.
My work is about finding beauty, balance, humor and resolution to what ails all of us at one time or another. I seek peaceful resolutions that vibrate with life, energy and happiness. My work begins with layers of color, symbols, written thoughts and prayers. My love of music and playing piano emerge during this underpainting process and continues as I add lyrical movement, patterns and color placement with entrances to journey through the painting and exits to take the message home.
My wish for the viewer is that you enjoy the musical journey in my work and leave my exhibit feeling happier, lighter, hopeful and powerful in a peaceful way.
Artist Bio
Signature Member Oklahoma Watercolor Society
Board Member and Secretary, Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition
Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition Panel Speaker, 2008
Signature Member Southwestern Watercolor Society
National Museum of Women in the Arts Clara Registry, Washington, DC
Member of National Association of Women Artists, New York, NY (NAWA)
Collections
Official State Collection of Oklahoma
St. Anthony’s Hospital, Oklahoma City
Leslie Powell Gallery, Lawton, Oklahoma
Daniel, Clampett, Powell & Cunningham, Attorneys-at-Law, Springfield, MO
Numerous private collections throughout the United States and Iceland
Solo Exhibitions
“Living Resolutions”, Kansas City Artists Coalition, Kansas City, MO, 2019
“Centered”, Northeastern State University Gallery, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, 2017
“Intermingled”, Performing Arts Center Gallery, Tulsa, OK, 2015
“Mind Travels”, Leslie Powell Gallery, Lawton, OK, 2009
“Journeys in Thought”, Performing Arts Center Gallery, Tulsa, OK, 2009
“Absolutely Abstract”, Color Connection Gallery, Tulsa, OK, 2007
“Oklahoma in Abstract”, Centennial Exhibit, Oklahoma State Capitol, Nov. 2006 - Jan. 2007
“Driven to Abstraction”, Color Connection Gallery, Tulsa, OK, 2003
“Out of the Box”, Individual Artists of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, OK, 2002
“The Family Down the Street”, Color Connection Gallery, Tulsa, OK, l999
Awards
“Pushing Paint”, National Association of Women Artists Exhibit, New York City, 2019
Tulsa Artists Coalition Members Exhibit , Tulsa, Oklahoma, 2017
MOAK 4-State Exhibition, Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, MO 2012
National Watercolor Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, OK, 2002
Oklahoma Art Workshops National Juried Exhibit, Tulsa, OK, 1999
Patron Purchase Award, Watercolor USA, Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, MO 1997
Recent Group Exhibitions
2019 - “Ms. Conceptions”, Marco Island Historical Society, Marco Island, Florida; “Pushing Paint”, NYC; “Between The Isms’, Fred Jones Museum of Art, Norman, OK 2018 - River Market Regional, Kansas City; “Daydreaming”, Coral Springs Art Museum, Coral Springs, Florida 2017 - “Shelter”, Harlem School of Fine Art, NYC; NAWA Winter Small Works Exhibit, NYC; TAC Member’s Exhibit; “God in the Abstract”, Nails in the Wall Gallery, Metuchen, NJ; “Regional Christian Art Exhibit”, Kansas City, KS; “Change”, Emerge Gallery, Saugerties, NY; NAWA Member’s Exhibit, NYC 2016 - NAWA Small Works Exhibit, NYC; “Women Artists Coast to Coast”, Seattle, WA; 127th NAWA Member’s Exhibition, NYC; “River Market Regional”, Kansas City; Member’s Exhibit, Tulsa Artists Coalition
Upcoming Exhibits
2019 - Cabal Group Exhibit, Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa
Publications and Media Interviews
Featured on Oklahoma Educational Television Authority (OETA) 2007. Interviewed by the media often; demonstration/talk at Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK, 2008. Studio Visit magazine, 2013, 2018; NPR Tulsa, August, 2013; Ch. 1 NY, NY NAWA 125th Members Exhibit, 2014; KOTV, KJRH, Tulsa World, for Oh, Tulsa! exhibit 2015; May Artist of the Month, Southwest Watercolor Society, 2017; Featured Artist, Artsyshark.com, January 2018
Wisdom
Mind Eclipse
Simple Pleasures
Sanctuary
Bell Tower Views
Night Life
Cuckoo in the Clock Tower
Sunshine Out My Window
Blue Moon
Mozart Plays Football
Little Bird
Midnight
Wandering in Blue
In Flight
