VANISHING

ARTIST

Diane Hulse

Diane Hulse is an abstract, mixed media artist whose work includes painting, drawing, sculpture, and jewelry. She was trained at Beloit College, NYU, The Art Students League of NY, School of Visual Arts, and Penland School of Crafts. With a background in biology as well as fine arts, Diane’s work investigates inner and outer landscapes, as found in our embattled Earth and the psychological landscape of self. She juxtaposes precious and humble materials, echoing duality. A fifty-year resident of NYC, Diane’s studio is in Chadds Ford, PA, and she has exhibited widely in New York, Italy, and Pennsylvania.

COUNTRY

USA

PROJECT

Erasing Myself

During the time of Covid, I have often felt that I was losing myself. It seemed like I was disappearing, vanishing into an alien universe that lacked form and substance. All that I had known and become was dissolving. Gone were familiar habits and normal ways of being. In order to remain grounded during this time, I produced many landscape drawings and self-portraits. However, the solidity of the drawings felt dishonest both to themselves and to me.

Therefore, I began to erase and scrape the work. Eraser smudges became remnants. Torn paper became evidence of what had once been. No matter how hard I erased – which I thought was miraculous and which ultimately became a healing process – the iPhone camera still identified the vanishing drawing as a human face. This discovery became a life raft in a sea of despondency.

MEDIUM

Graphite on paper, erased and scraped