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Diane Bronstein imagines a world where nature has won. Her training as a graphic designer focuses on the power of image. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, she has always infused her work with illustration. For over twenty years, Bronstein has been in the museum field and signage industry, developing logos, exhibit graphics and environmental graphics. She has exhibited her fine art around the country in multiple shows and is currently curating a multi-person exhibition.
The Interview
At what point in your life did you know that you wanted to become an artist? Did the realization emerge slowly?
I always liked to draw and paint. One of my favorite toys was a Barbie lightbox. It came with classic Barbie clothes designs printed on tracing paper with sheets of blank paper. The goal was to trace a scene with various Barbie clothes and accessories, but I was always mixing up pages so Barbie might have on a cowboy hat, fur coat and plaid skirt. I wasn't a kid who colored in the lines. I was the kid at the lunch table drawing horses, cars and fashions for the other kids.
My high school had a really comprehensive Art Department and that’s where I spent a large part of my school day taking drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture classes, a typical art nerd.
I became an Illustration Major in the Design Department at Carnegie Mellon University. At the time, our department was undergoing curriculum changes and the few of us illustration majors were permitted to take classes not normally offered to the designers. My favorite class was an anatomy for artists. I cobbled together a lot of classes that I really liked, but didn’t really prepare me to be for the life of a graphic designer.
How did you evolve your style and favorite mediums?
After graduation, I moved to Boston. I worked as a designer and art director, but became bored. I started taking courses at Harvard in their Museum Studies program. As part of the requirements, I interned at the Museum of Science in the Exhibits Department. I loved it so much that I stayed for fourteen years as a full-time graphic designer. I used my design and illustration skills all of the time and learned a lot about science, visualizing complex data, visitor behavior in galleries and how to make gallery experiences meaningful and educational.
Looking for something more “artistic” drove me back to my roots of drawing. I started attending live model sessions at a local art center. After acquiring a massive amount of drawings, I began experimenting with sewing the newsprint that I drew on and creating hand sewn life-sized lingerie. I loved the juxtaposition of the nudity on the outside of the clothes no one (usually) sees. I made over 50 pieces and started showing them in juried shows around the country.
After a year of making these, I decided to create an art exhibit based on women who make or use lingerie in their work. I contacted women artists who I’d never met but whose work I really admired. I asked them to be in this project and we ended up getting booked in five venues around the country for over a year. It was a remarkable experience. I was able to meet all but one and many are still friends.
Around 2014, I wanted to try something new. I found some old photos and I started to embroider them. At that time, embroidery wasn't as popular. It was so cool to create color over the black and white images.I experimented collaging multiple photos, exaggerating the angles and shadows and using embroidery to join them. My work is different because I use thousands of knots to build up the embroidery. Some of my pieces are over an inch thick in the embroidery. I use the colors of the floss to create dimensionality, too by studying the shadows and changes to the values of the photos.
I take a lot of photos when I travel. I'm usually standing on the edge of a curb, taking a photo of a side street or an old building that I want to embroider, not the typical travel shots.
What are your time management techniques? Do you have regular working hours...or favorite times to work?
I've been working as a freelance designer for the past few years and make art when I had time. Freelancing gives me a way of creating my own work time.
I tend to work for a few hours at night when I can relax. My pieces sometimes take months to finish, but I find that I'm devoting more time to my fine art because I'm not working as much due to the economic downturn.
Do you work on more than one piece at a time, or primarily just on one?
For some reason, I always end up with multiple pieces at once. Sometimes I have an abundance of certain colors of floss or I've taken a photo that I can't wait to embroider or I've found a new image that goes well with an old one. They're all in different stages. Right now, I have four pieces in progress.
What would you say is your biggest influence--that which keeps you working, regardless of all else, your most steadfast motivation?
I love to have the need to create. The process of making something tangible from an idea is exciting. It’s so weird that I’ve become so enamored of hand sewing and embroidery. I was never “crafty” and hated sewing on machines. My grandmother was a professional seamstress before she got married and could make anything. As a kid, when we’d go clothes shopping, she would see something she liked and study the seams and material. Then she’d go home and sew one. I have a mohair coat that she made for my mother in the 1960s. I credit her for being my muse.
Does trying something new and not knowing the rules -- the boundary pushing -- create anxiety or excitement in you? (Or both?)
I’m not afraid of failure in my art, I accept the challenges.
For the past few decades, so much of my day job has been done on screen. I was in college a tiny bit before computers were de rigueur for designers. We had classes in drawing with ruling pens, handsetting hot metal typem pulling prints and making boxes from illustration board. It was so tactile and used all of our senses. I think having any hand/eye relationship outside of working on a computer is so vital to visual artists. When you mess up, you can't just hit Command-Z.
Since 2012, I've been interested in curating art exhibits. I guess working in the museum field for twenty years makes me miss the process of organizing and collaborating. I curated a traveling exhibit in 2012 and had such a great experience, that I'm currently developing another one with 44 artists.
Do you enjoy having the "duality of both chaos and control" or are you happiest with a set plan?
I'm a creature of the duality. I keep my options open and try to make things work. Obviously, you need some sort of starting point, but having an open mind gives you a lot more options.
I’ve been working on a piece for my new curated show. I started to embroider a metal chain, but it didn’t look right. It was too tight and restrictive. As soon as I started to tear it out, I fell in love with the deconstruction. Having to solve problems that don’t necessarily follow a plan is just life.
Do you have any projects or events forthcoming?
I'm curating a multi-person right now titled Contain Your Fear. Last year was so rough, I had to find something to allay my worries about the future. Many of my artist and designer friends were facing tough times, too; clients cancelled projects, budgets shrunk, cultural institutions closed. I contacted a group of artist, designer and writer friends from around the country and they jumped on board. Some even recommended their friends.
We have forty-four people each creating a piece of work based on a personal fear and how to contain or conquer it.
I'm doing all of the planning, writing proposals, finding venues, and all of that. I really love organizing and I've had great response from the artists and interest from venues. We represent a wide swath of experiences and media; painters, photographers, interdisciplinary artists, sculptors, designers, book artists, textile artists, ceramic artists, essayists and even a poet. The best part of this process is reacquainting with friends, meeting new artists and making connections between them. It's been so rewarding. I can't wait to see the work!
I hope the show inspires people to face their fears creatively.
And soon the darkness...
2018, 25.5"w x 13"h x 1"
Embroidery on vintage photos on stretched canvas
$3000
2018, 25.5"w x 13"h x 1"
Embroidery on vintage photos on stretched canvas
$3000
Hot Spring Eternal
2016
8.5"w x 13"h,
Embroidery on original photo on board
$525
2016
8.5"w x 13"h,
Embroidery on original photo on board
$525
Monster Series: If this is Heaven, then drag me to Hell
2019,
11"h x 8.5"w x 1"d,
Embroidery on original photo on stretched canvas
$675
2019,
11"h x 8.5"w x 1"d,
Embroidery on original photo on stretched canvas
$675
The Abandoned
2016
7"w x 7.5"h,
Embroidery on vintage photo on board
$600
2016
7"w x 7.5"h,
Embroidery on vintage photo on board
$600
The Wave
2020
9"w x 10"h x 1"d
Embroidery on vintage photo, seashells on stretched canvas
$800
2020
9"w x 10"h x 1"d
Embroidery on vintage photo, seashells on stretched canvas
$800
What Lies Beneath
2016
11"w x 14"h x 1"d
Embroidery on vintage photo, various beads on stretched canvas
$600
2016
11"w x 14"h x 1"d
Embroidery on vintage photo, various beads on stretched canvas
$600
Contact the artist directly:
Diane Bronstein
speedygal2@gmail.com
https://speedygale.wixsite.com/unreal-city.
Diane Bronstein
speedygal2@gmail.com
https://speedygale.wixsite.com/unreal-city.