Diane Hulse Artist
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Art Blog #5: BREAKTHROUGH

1/17/2021

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My best artwork comes from a place inside of me that is full of spontaneity. That place is neither too intellectual nor overly emotional. It is a place where I am fully in the moment, able to see possibility and to respond with joy to what my senses are perceiving. Such is the case with the work pictured here.
 
This is a breakthrough piece, and it has led to a deep wellspring of artistic inspiration. I didn’t plan that this piece would be so important to me. In fact, it was accidental. I had been working for several weeks with unusual materials, including Styrofoam and pantyhose. I wanted to make my work large but light in weight. I had been carving Styrofoam, stuffing pantyhose with pillow stuffing, manipulating papier-mâché, and testing light weight sculptural materials
 
As part of that exploration, I had crafted the forms in the piece above and arranged them on a very large sheet of Styrofoam. I had spent several days re-configuring the elements and trying to find both imagery and composition that were pleasing to me. Thematically, I had been exploring the dark side of power and trying to comprehend the impact of generational violence on women. I had made gruesome Raggedy Ann dolls from pantyhose and grotesque clown figures from colored tights. 
 
As I worked, I had many associations with pantyhose, as most women do. Pantyhose are uncomfortable. They are confining. They make women bulge out in unattractive places. The wearing of pantyhose emerges from a set of cultural expectations that have restricted and defined women for decades. Stuffing pantyhose was enjoyable because it allowed me to be somewhat counter-cultural. I could make figures that were wild and unruly.  Lots of emotions started to bubble to the surface. The stuffed pantyhose readily became body parts. It easily formed facial expressions and inner organs. The material was fragile yet very fluid. My hands enjoyed the texture and flexibility.
 
The precursor to the work pictured above was the sixth or seventh piece that I had created from pantyhose. However, I didn’t like the final state of the precursor piece, and I disassembled it, intending to discard the elements. When I held the soft, stuffed forms, I couldn’t quite bring myself to toss them into the trash, however. They were so interesting and squeezable. Spontaneously, I decided to keep the forms for possible use later, and I started to weave them in and out of the grid on the wall of my studio because I couldn’t figure out where else to store them.
 
Quickly, I realized that I had invented a unique process. I could actually push the stuffed pantyhose through the metal grid and create evocative imagery. When I arrived at what felt like a complete statement, I grabbed a frame and hung it on the grid to surround the stuffed forms.
 
Shortly thereafter, the piece took on a life of its own in my imagination. Humor and possibility began to replace the darkness of the gruesome and grotesque figures I had been creating. It seemed like creative floodgates opened in the right side of my brain as I acquired mastery of the new imagery. I realized that I did not need to be literal; I could be visually figurative. This was a breakthrough piece because it enabled me to develop a visual language that was in my voice. In fact, the breakthrough piece helped me find a voice that I did not know that I had.
 
Ironically, unless the steel grid is sawed off, the piece can never be moved. It is woven permanently in place, a fitting metaphor for an epiphany.
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Art Blog #4: BEING AN ARTIST

1/7/2021

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Being an artist and making art are not the same. I have made art ever since I can remember. I love making art. I love drawing and painting and sculpture and printmaking. I love materials, textures, color, art techniques, and art supply stores. I love to look at art and to read about art and to study art of many cultures, many places, and in many periods of history.
 
There is so much to know about art, so much to learn. I love thinking about what art is and how it both defines and becomes redefined by every generation. I love how art builds upon its own history as artists stand on the shoulders of the artists who have gone before them. I love thinking about the evolution of art and tracing that evolution back to the origins of the human species. I feel connected through art.
 
What I am discovering in this period of my life is that there is a huge difference between making art and being an artist. When I had a full-time job, I did not have much spare time to do my art work. I am admitting to myself that for most of my life, I made art – and this is hard to say – more as a hobbyist than an artist. Now however, I do have time, and my art is changing. I am thinking deeply about visual language. I am considering what is unique about me and how that uniqueness makes my art different from anyone else’s. I am thinking about my voice and tapping into levels of myself that I didn’t know I had.
 
It is not easy to be authentic in one’s art. What is easy is to develop a style or use a technique that is tried and true. It is easy to make art that is appealing to viewers, especially if one is making representational images. It is also easy to make decorative art, which is pleasing to the eye. However, I don’t want that. I want my art to be from my soul, which I know is connected to the universe.
 
I love the words of John Cage, who said: “When you start working, everybody is in your studio – the past, your friends, enemies, the art world, and above all, your own ideas – all are there. But as you continue working, they start leaving, one by one, and you are left completely alone. Then, if you are lucky, even you leave.”
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    Diane Hulse

    I am an abstract, mixed media artist with a background in biology as well as the fine arts. I use my art to investigate the outer landscapes of our embattled Earth, and the inner landscape of self.

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  • HOME
  • Paintings
    • My Inner Voices
    • I Dream of Meadows
    • Beasts I have Known
    • Fragments of My Life
    • At Home on Earth
  • Objects
    • When We Dined
    • What We Wore
  • ABOUT
    • Artist's Statement
    • CV
  • CONTACT