Diana Freedman Shea
STORY
As the current President of NYSWA, I have had the privilege of working with an exceptional group of women artists and paying close attention to each member’s personal journey becoming an artist.
Some stories, of course, are more colorful than others, but the qualities of curiosity, determination, an appetite for learning and risk taking were qualities that all the artists shared.
My own story, is both rich and ordinary. In retrospect, it can be seen as predictive that I would make a life in Art.
I grew up in The Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, before it became a flashpoint for politically charged racial and ethnic conflict, and later, a hip and gentrified place to move to.
The neighborhood that I knew, had solid public schools, working and lower middle-class parents, who were intent on creating a nurturing and safe environment for their children. Public schools offered gifted children enriched educations, and average students were given the attention necessary to thrive and find their way. Art and music were then part of everyone’s education. I loved to paint and the smell of tempera excited me. And while I was not an art star, I was keenly observant and would draw likenesses of my teachers when I was bored.
My own parents’ cultural interests did not go much beyond the popular culture and my only museum trip with my father, was to the Brooklyn Museum to see the mummies. The snobbery that I developed as a teenager, blinded me to something that was so basic to my family life. Both my parents were consummate craftspeople, and “making things” were a way of life.
My mother had boxes of buttons, feathers, ribbons, fabrics, and crystalline beads. She had been a successful milliner, supporting her mother and sister, during the Great Depression, and she was now involved in projects for friends, neighbors and shop owners.
My father was an amateur photographer, Sometimes he would set up his Bogen enlarger and pans of stinky developer. He also bred guppies and built miniature ships. But by trade he was a radio and television technician. Radio and TV chassis with glass tubes and colored wires were the magical sculptures in my home: always works in progress.
I thought I wanted to be an artist, although I wasn’t quite sure what that meant.
I was a good student, and had facility in drawing, but smart girls went to college to become teachers, so that they had the afternoons and evenings free for their families.
When I was in High School, I won a scholarship to Pratt Institute Saturday School and learned about color, space, line. texture, and some art history. My world opened up. This was every bit as stimulating and challenging as my academic classes. With some scholarship money and student loans I entered college at the age of 17.
Feeling very sophisticated, I had the most rude awakening; that indeed I was a small fish in a big pond, I was younger and less mature than most students, and without the background of a specialized high school, or parents who were museum goers. Did I have a lot of catching up to do!
I graduated with my BFA when I was 20 years old and got my first teaching job at James Madison High School in Brooklyn. (Both Bernie Sanders and Charles Schumer were alumni.)
I later received my MFA from Brooklyn College, finding teaching jobs, catch as catch can, as art and music were being scrapped from schools during the 1970’s recession. I continued to take classes at the Art Students League, SVA, the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, and kept in touch with my graduate school mentors, Lennart Anderson and Lois Dodd, all the time having or desperately seeking a day job.
I began writing art reviews for an art newspaper. That was one of the few ways that artists could advertise their work, if they weren’t important enough for the New York Times or the glossies. There was no Facebook, Instagram etc. “Artspeak” was a mom and pop operation, perhaps not serious “criticism”, but it validated and encouraged artists. I very much enjoyed speaking to other artists about their work, looking deeply at what they were doing, and yes, every now and then, I had an adventure.
I guess my first realization that I was an artist and my work had value was after being awarded a residency at The Millay Colony, and waiting for my ride to the colony. I was sitting in the lobby of the Algonquin Hotel, a gallon of turpentine at my feet, a grungy bag of supplies near my turpentine and then came a voice in my head, “My goodness, someone is paying to board and feed you and give you the gift of time to do your own work. What a high!!!!
Artist residencies then became where I spent my summer months: three times atThe Virginia Center for the Creative arts, The Cummington Center for the Arts, The Woodstock Art School, Wassard Elea, in Cilento, Italy. Wait-listed for a summer Residency at the MacDowell Colony, I needed to take a job and forgo my chances.
I joined two Co-operative Galleries in New York City., The first was the Noho Gallery, and after, The Prince Street Gallery. Between them, I had 10 solo exhibitions. I also showed solo at The Interchurch Center and Noel Fine Art in Bronxville NY. Paintings and prints were exhibited at the Kennedy Gallery, NYC, The Hammond Museum, The Minnesota Museum, The Albright Knox Museum, The Flinn Gallery, Greenwich Connecticut. The Broome Street Gallery, Saint Peter’s Church, The Katonah Gallery ( “For Real with Jack Beal”,: no kidding”), The Mesa Art Center, The Carriage Barn Center in New Caanan Wildlife Conservation Society, The National Zoo, The Wisconsin Primate Center: Endangered Species, The Triplex Gallery, CUNY, and in many other venues.
Publications included “Art and The Law”. “The Villager”, “Cowparade“ (mine- Vincent Van cogh), “Prince Street Gallery Anniversary Exhibitions 40th year and 50th year”, and “Lois Dodd and Her Students” and an anniversary Portfolio of prints from the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop.
I also exhibited works as a fund raiser for the International Fund for Animal Welfare: a continuation of my Large Elephant painting project, begun in the 1980’s
I left my twin tower studio in the World Trade center in August 2001, where I painted aerial views, learning a month later on 9/11 , that life is capricious, I retired from teaching in 2002 finally having the means to do so. I chose to dedicate myself to making art full-time.