Diane Huneke

 

 

 

Artist's Statement

 

I've been painting for almost as long as I can remember. I started when I was about three and one of my earliest memories is finger painting at the kitchen table--- I haven't much wavered in my pursuit since then. I was raised on a small farm in Iowa and my work strongly reflects my rural background, my love of the beautiful and sensual forms that surround me, and my deep respect for the land.

I typically work in a series, as this is a forum that allows me to concentrate deeply and push a bit on the boundaries of the subject I'm thinking about and how I'm thinking about it. Some series retain a great deal of consistency of form and obvious subject matter; others are transformed over time in surprising and unexpected ways. In my twenties and early thirties I was most interested in a hybridization of thought and form between outer observation and the inner conscious and subconscious. I studied, was transfixed by, and freely incorporated symbols and aspects of both ancient and everyday society as a kind of universal cross-cultural shorthand. I worked in mixed media on both paper and canvas and experimented widely with non-traditional watercolor techniques. This work informs some of my more recent work, especially the Crossroads series.

 

For a number of years I concentrated on painting abstracted landscapes- with keen attention to ignored natural phenomena, extraordinary moments of light and flashes of color, and forms that create natural rhythm on the land itself. These works have been primarily executed in watercolor and gouache, with some occasional forays into working on canvas. Much of my landscape painting and sketching time was spent in New Mexico, with marathon follow-up studio painting sessions in Missouri. When I bought a small farm along the Missouri River I started spending more time painting our Missouri landscape, including the surreally colored springs that flow in the Ozarks hills.

 

In the last few years I've been painting from dreams and my work has expanded in to an exploration of spirituality and Buddhism (Crossroads series, Turning Arrows into Flowers series), as well as being influenced by my own wildly changing life. Most recently I've worked on figurative abstracts (the Her/Him series), additional dream-based work, and a new series titled the Healer's Heart. When the weather is fine I work at my studio on the farm, where I'm slowly developing a series of highly abstracted landscapes on canvas.

I studied art for two years (1973-1975) at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, and have been largely self-taught since that time.

 

 

 

Diane's Portfolio of available work for sale

 

 

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