Diana Durrand Biography
Diana Durrand graduated with an honours BFA degree from the University of Victoria, B.C. She is a contemporary mixed-media artist exploring and pushing boundaries to express the range of human emotions.
Art critic Liz Gilbert wrote, “Diana is an amiable artist with an infectious wit who elevates everyday experience and domestic objects to benignly humorous levels.”
Many of her works are studies on the relationships we have with other species and the responsibilities that carries, shows like: Where are the pigs where are they?; Humming for the love of Bees for the Life of Bees; Gallus Domesticus, we are the keepers; and Sofa Sitters of Victoria.
Each of these shows featured innovative techniques and styles of capturing and presenting subjects and embedding deeper messages in compelling works of art. Throughout her career, Diana has adopted new and unique methods for portraying and questioning the world around us.
Six years ago, she began work on her Paper Doll series, portrayals of women and their roles in the world, by referencing as a connecting metaphor the paper cutouts children growing up in the fifties and sixties played with. Diana incorporated real fabric into these works, defining the garments of her subjects. To make the link between paper dolls and her contemporary art apparent, white tabs were added to the edges of the human figures, representing the tabs used to fasten outfits to paper dolls.
The series asks, What do women show and what do they hide with their clothing? It implies broader questions about the social and cultural values women are expected to live up to.
Diana use of fabric has become her new palette in the mixed-media works of creating art. More recently, she has been adding to her Human Touch series. Fabric defines not only the human form in these works but also the shape and posture of animals. Cats and rabbits interact with women in ways that personify feelings and intentions. In works like The Hug #1 and The Hug #2, loving interactions between women are portrayed with no words necessary.
The series explores the power of 'Human Touch’ and the emotional connection we have with each other and other species. Her pieces range in size from 12”x12” to 36”x48”. Diana produces her work using various fabric, liquid plastic, and acrylic on canvas.
To view more of her work, please go to www.dianadurrand.com.
I’m a mixed-media contemporary artist working with found objects, felt, and fabrics. For the past six years, I have been portraying people, animals, and the relationships between them in the Paper Doll and The Human Touch series.
The Paper Doll series explores the way we cover our bodies in fabrics to represent who and what we are in the world. It uses the metaphor of cutout costumes children played with growing up in the fifties and sixties as a unifying element.
The Human Touch series expresses the importance of our connection to each other and to other creatures as experienced through touch. Coinciding with the outbreak of COVID 19, it is a commentary on the isolation many felt during the pandemic.
