Local Marathon Artist Featured
in One-Woman Show
by Debbie Wahrmund
22
O
ne cannot help
but be inspired
when meeting
Diane Bailey, in person
or through her art.
Professionally trained
in New York City, ini-
tially in oil painting,
Diane currently ‘plays’
with assemblages and
constructions
to
achieve, as she says, “A
different
twist,
a
tongue-in-cheek, some-
thing a little absurd; a
touch of humor.” If
this risks categorization
as “weird,” that is okay
with her, even as she
prepares for her one-
woman show in Alpine,
Texas. Diane conjures
a desert mirage when
she creates glass-front-
ed “shadow boxes”
from found objects in
her desert backyard.
Reminiscent
of
American
sculptor
Joseph Cornell, her art
evokes a brilliant imag-
inary reflection of
place. She scoops up
items much like one of
her favorite quotes
from artist Romare
Bearden, who said,
“The artist has to be
something like a whale,
swimming with his
mouth open, absorbing
everything.”
A voracious reader,
Diane draws on a deep
well of artists and
authors.
Tossing
Chinese coins and
gleaning tidbits from “I
Ching” as she reads,
Diane ponders the out-
Cenizo
First Quarter 2017
come of the three coins she tossed this
day, that led her to a passage of “The
Creative.” The position of the coins,
whether top or bottom, map to a semi-
complex formula to a page number.
When asked if this is a key to her art,
Diane says, “I just try to watch and
feel. It is not inspiring but it is encour-
aging.” She adds, “Finding a window
into oneself” is the goal.
Born in 1947 in Schenectady, New
York, Diane was an only child whose
parents separated when she was in the
second grade. This resulted in her
mother and Diane moving to the
grandparents’ dairy farm outside of
Ballston Spa, NY. Her mother took a
train to Albany, NY to work every day,
leaving Diane with plenty of time on
her hands. “They would keep me out
of their hair and endlessly occupied by
giving me pencils, crayons, clothes
pins, tubes of glue, scissors and fabric
to make ‘clothes pin people,’” she says.
“I enjoyed making things, and escap-
ing into my own world when I am
making creations is a pleasure that has
never abandoned me.”
Diane says her formal education
started when she was 16 in Saratoga
Lake, NY. “When I was a junior in
high school, I saw an ad for painting
lessons at a small coffee house,” she
says. That is when she met her lifelong
friend and mentor, painter and teacher
Harold Keller. He offered weekly les-
sons at Caffé Lena’s in Saratoga
Springs, NY and accepted Diane as a
student, waiving the regular fees.
Caffé Lena became the oldest continu-
ously-running coffee house in the
United States. Featuring folk singers
Bob Dylan and Dave Von Rock
among others, it was a haven for many
and became a crucible for Diane as a
budding artist. Keller has been very
influential in Diane’s life and art, and
his work can be found online at
www.haroldkellerartist.net.
The year was 1964, and Diane