Today we’d like to introduce you to Ellen Dieter.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio my grandmother would take me to the Cleveland Museum of Art. It was then that I knew I was going to be an artist. I began studies at the Cooper School of Art in Cleveland, Ohio during high school. From there I attended the Cleveland Institute of Art. Upon completing that phase of my education, my artistic passion took me to Paris, where after extensive travel I studied briefly at L’Ecole des Arts Appliqués. During the next ten years, I lived and worked in Paris. My work was successfully shown at several solo and group shows in Paris and its suburbs.
Upon returning to the United States, I spent the following 20 years raising my daughter in San Diego. I taught art at Children’s Creative and Performing Arts Academy, danced with City Moves Dance Foundation, and eventually worked as a scenic artist and then Company Manager for the renowned Old Globe Theatre
In 2007 I recommitted myself to my painting as well as commencing to travel back and forth to Hawaii.
With a studio in San Diego and Honolulu I have been painting my way through life. I have had a number of very successful solo exhibits in galleries such as the Adelman Fine Art Gallery in San Diego, William D. Cannon Gallery in Carlsbad, CA. The San Diego Art Institute, The Martha Pace Swift Gallery and The L Street Gallery in San Diego, OMA’s Herbert B. Turner Gallery in Del Mar, CA to mention a few.
I just had a solo exhibit at the Oceanside Museum of art and have been in two group shows at the Museum, once with the Oceanside Museum of Art Artist Alliance and once in a juried exhibition. I have earned multiple awards in painting, and in 2011, I was honored to have been invited by Alexander Salazar to be the artist in residence at the Alexander Salazar Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego. Almost immediately following that, Cedar Street Galleries of Honolulu, HI offered me a similar experience in Hawaii along with my first Hawaiian solo exhibition.
Recently I was asked to teach a master class at Arton30th in North Park, San Diego bringing me full circle.
I am a member of a women’s group of artists in San Diego, TWA. We get together and talk art. It’s an amazing connection. To be with women who feel as passionately about art as I do, they keep me grounded and connected.
I am also a member of: The San Diego Museum of Art and Artist Guild, The Oceanside Museum of Art and Artist Alliance, The San Diego Art Institute, The Honolulu Art Museum, and the Artist of Hawaii Association. I am represented by Adelman Fine Art Gallery in San Diego, CA and Cedar Street Galleries in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Please tell us about your art.
When I paint, I throw caution to the wind, letting it out, expressing from the inside, deliberate, yet free… arbitrary, yet intentional. Moving paint around, mixing colors, trying new ideas thrills me and I cannot not paint.
My work is about the process. The image often comes secondary to the actual art making. I tend to work a lot in the abstract world of shape and color, line and form, painting intuitively, one brush stroke leading to the next. I find that there is a poetic spirituality in the process. Figures or landscapes may appear. Lines cross the canvas, words pop up out of nowhere. What happens next can be surprising and exciting. There is a definite chaos through which each work evolves. What is left behind me be visible or not, but I always know it is there. Creating, destructing, recreating…. Figuring it out, as in life.
I always hope that the take is away is a joyful experience. That the viewer can see and relate to an experience, whatever that experience may be for him or her. And also see that there is a process of decision making, again, as we do in life.
Given everything that is going on in the world today, do you think the role of artists has changed? How do local, national or international events and issues affect your art?
I do not think that the role of artists has changed. It has always been our role to express and document. The world inside and out impacts my art, of course, how can it not? The way we express changes as the world changes. We are constantly evolving, creating and destroying and recreating. I am constantly growing and changing, creating, destroying, and recreating….
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
I will be in a group show at the William D. Cannon Gallery in Carlsbad, CA – Prom Dress – Seventeen on Being 17 – April 29th-June 17th 2018 – 1775 Dove Lane, Carlsbad CA 92011
I am represented by:
Adelman Fine Art Gallery – 1980 Kettner Blvd. San Diego, CA 92101 –
https://Adelman Fineart.com/EllenDieter
Cedar Street Gallery – 817 Cédar Street – Honolulu Hawaii 96814 – https://cedarstreetgalleries.com/EllenDieter
You can fine me on Face Book: https://m.facebook.com/EllenDieter
And Instagram: @ellendieter
And my blogspot: ellendieterartist.blogspot.com
You can also support me and my work by donating to research for MS as I was diagnosed 16 years ago….
Contact Info:
- Website: https://EllenDieterArtist.blogspot.com
- Phone: 619-997-3169
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/EllenDieter
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/ellendieter
- Twitter: https://Twitter.com/ellendieter
- Other: https://ellendieterartist.blogspot.com
Image Credit:
Ellen Dieter
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