Diana Meredith: Tree of Life - July 7th - 25th, 2010

An exhibition of new mixed media digital art

RedEye Studio Gallery
The Distillery District
Case Goods Warehouse - Bldg 74
55 Mill Street, Toronto

www.dianameredith.com
www.dianameredith.blogspot.com
I attended Sheridan College School of Design and Crafts in Ontario and trained in Ceramics. I began doing clay and plastic figurative sculpture in the early 70s. I worked as a potter first in a factory in New Mexico and then at my own pottery in Ontario. Along the way I wandered into feminism where I became involved in the alternative theatre scene and creative writing. I have worked as a cook, a counselor for abused women, an Outward Bound instructor, a teacher and a web designer. In the mid 90s I met Photoshop 3 and fell in love with the visual possibilities of digital art. Now I teach Digital Art and make mixed media digital images in Toronto.

Diana teaches three different digital art courses and Colour Theory at Humber College in Toronto, Ontario. These are part of a fulltime program called Visual and Digital Art.

Can you talk a bit about your technique?

I start with this material called Pellon, which is used by the upholstery industry for facing furniture. It's basically a kind of plastic. I use this instead of canvas because these get put through a printer at some point. Canvas would wrinkle, and wouldn't go through the printer. I first put gesso on the Pellon to make it white, and the texture comes from different goops such as modeling paste. In this particular painting (left) I took seran wrap over the paste and made lines with my fingers. In most cases I start by putting the texture on, but in some pictures I first put acrylic paint on for the background. Then I dance with the image in the computer using Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator. Depending on the printed results I get, I paint over it again. The reason the ink will print on this painted surface, is because I use a goop called inkAID - which was designed so that digital inks will sit on the surface. For example last year I was printing on aluminum. For the paintings that shimmer, I use an iridescent inkAID, such as gold or blue, that affects the colours and they print very beautifully. Sometimes I paint on top of the digital image again with metallic paint. The amount of digital imagery in each painting can vary.

How much of your work is preplanned? Or is that even possible?

It really depends on the image. One of the reasons that I work in digital and why I have for so long, is because I love the exploration I can do with an image. But also, I have an 'undo' button - I can experiment and mess it up. I keep a version of it so I can come back. With analog, of course I have to be a lot more attentive. So I really love how the different parts of the process have different parameters to them.

Is that part of what enticed to work in digital?

You bet! When I got into Photoshop it was Photoshop, Photoshop, Photoshop...

You say on your blog that you have more fun with analog painting. Is that true?

(Laughing) What I really should have said there more accurately was that there's a certain kind of aliveness with splashing the paint on. It's kind of like Buddhism. It makes me be more present. One of the downsides with the computer is because of the undo button I can think about something else and don't have to pay attention all the time. Whereas if I'm not paying attention while I'm doing the painting - bad things happen to good people. But I love the physicality of painting. It's funny how these things work - I love working on the computer, but I'm a middle-aged woman, and if you sit at the computer for ten hours a day you kill your body. Working physically again was part of the attraction for me. That was another reason why I wanted to go back to analog.

So you get to create from such contrasting and different perspectives...

Yes. I'm sort of reclaiming my roots. On my blog I wrote a piece the other day called The Material Girl. One of the things I love is this physicality, the experimentation, try this, try that. I like that part of it.

Your passion for experimentation comes through so strongly, and it seems to be such a big part of your work. In your writing you mention that your creativity trumps your technique.

Really, you need both. But my creativity has always been my driving force. Technique doesn't come easily to me. I mean, to do what I do in Photoshop, you need to be really technically astute. To do what I do with all these goops, I have to be really good technically. When I was a potter, I had to be really good technically. But it doesn't come easily. Even though I teach colour theory, I teach Photoshop, and I teach these techniques - it's not what comes first for me. I don't lead with technique.

Do you consider mastering a technique to be a goal you're trying to reach?

It's never my goal to master technique. My goal is to make the image, and I have to learn technique, and I have to respect technique to get to the images I want. I don't dis technique at all - some people are technically brilliant. I struggled with drawing for years, I still am.

You had roughly two months to prepare for this show. Can you talk about the creative process from the conception of the idea to the realization of the exhibit?

It's the reality of earning a living and of doing what I do. I'm a teacher, I'm an artist, and I have to promote myself. But I haven't yet figured out how to do all three at the same time. Last year from September to April I had one week in January where I did two small images. And then I didn't have time to do any more. And then I got this show, and I thought, "well, I'm gonna make this work, from May and June." So that became a limitation. I use a phrase often with my students where I say "limitations are my friend." You always have limitations, no matter what you do, and you have to have them. Two months is a really short time! But I had done a lot of my testing already, plus there's nothing like a little pressure to make artistic decisions quickly. Because I've been doing this for awhile, you learn how to make the decision. But when I get where I want to with the work, that's a big moment.

Do you know of any other artists who are doing similar experimentation with digital media?

Yes and no. I learned about this from three women in the States. Their website is digitalatelier.com, and those three women wrote a book, which I bought quite a long time ago. I knew I wanted to do digital analog, but I was a little daunted by some of the techniques. The studio manager of one of those women was teaching a workshop in Rochester at the Booksmart Studio. This teacher was fantastic - she just hit the ground running - and she taught a lot of these techniques. They're all very new, but most of the people doing these techniques are photographers. I'm new in that I'm experimenting with the acrylic paints along with the digital techniques.