Diane G Rolnick

I work with a painter’s mind and eye as a digital mixed-media artist exploring and excavating a rich layering of imagery. Many of my figurative portraits reflect personal experiences and real or imaginative histories or interactions. Growing up as a dancer and artist in New York City allowed me to immerse myself in movement and painting, which unifies my work today. Investigating the complexities, thoughts, and the behaviors of humans with the rhythms of our lives informs how I peruse the world and create my tableaus. I wonder and examine who we are as human beings and how we act, react, and sense others. Each of my pieces may combine engagement with others or solitary insular moments alone or in a gathering. The intertwining of humanity and nature is a core belief that excites my work. Growing up with a mother who was a horticulturist, I was surrounded by flowers and a spectacular garden which invested me with knowledge that the cycles of nature are parallel to our own lives. My own history, stories, and struggles are situated in my work as I have focused on women and our fight through the years to be treated as equals.

Diane Rolnick was 12 years old when she first visited New Mexico and knew one day she would live in this beautiful place. In 1996 when she left the East Coast to move to New Mexico, arriving with her artwork and anticipation of a wonderful adventure. Her first home was an old adobe from the 1930’s in Hernandez. Through the years the Rolnick would acquire a horse, four goats, two dogs, and create gardens at the three houses she lived in for over 29 years. Setting up studios in her homes and making her artwork accompanied her teaching at many institutions including Northern New Mexico College, College of Santa Fe, IAIA, UNM Los Alamos, Santa Fe Community College and other venues. Rolnick’s early artwork in New Mexico included encaustic/digital bodies of family, self-portraits, and political figures. In 2004 she curated an exhibition called “Unheard Voices SpeakOut” about the upcoming presidential election that included Harmony Hammond, May Stevens, and many other wonderful artists in the community. While living in the East Mountains, her mother died. Unable to work in her studio, Rolnick began to use her camera to shoot in the barnyard at dusk and print out images on paper, silk, and other materials. This led to her interest in digital art and the new technologies. She continues to move forward in this field as technologies change. For Rolnick there is a great freedom in gathering images (photographing) and layering ideas that create great puzzles that need to

Collage/Mixed Media, Digital Art, Photography