ARTIST STATEMENT
EXHIBITION HISTORY
GALLERIES
MY FAVORITES


Artist Statement -



Illustrator and fine artist now accepting commissions
Contact studio15828-artwork@yahoo.com

Indulging In A Passion For Mark-Making: the Artist’s Statement


Diana Ludwig, Fine Artist and Illustrator
2411 Belltown Road, Clarington, Pennsylvania 15828
330-530-2659; 814-752-6328; drawingdiana@gmail.com

Engaging in adrenaline-charged mark-making, the artist is attempting to portray the writhing mass of life forms around her. She includes fields of energy and minefields of emotion and thought which are clearly visible to her. The landscape writhes; geologic history is compressed and covers about 37 hours which are all recorded in her piece. This vision is applied to figures and activities that capture her wits, are absorbed, digested & spewed back out upon the working surface. A piece is physically worked into, pushed, pulled, gashed, soothed and stroked. A wide variety of mostly water-soluble media are used to converse with the ground, usually crashing beyond any boundaries of tidiness. Neither is the evolution of the idea behind any piece tidy. She almost always begins with a concrete glimpse of nature, from which a dialogue ensues, arguments tumult, tempers flare, spirits plummet, and soar – and usually surprised herself—the artist emerges—quite scathed—on the other side with a rich piece, evidence of a journey. It’s as if the artist steps off deliberately pursuing uncertainty.

Ludwig has a fine arts degree with an emphasis on drawing from Kutztown University.
She has spent 16 years in chocolate factories doing everything from running a moulding line to turning raw ingredients into the liquid chocolate product to creating fine European truffles by hand. She has circumnavigated the perimeter of the state of Pennsylvania on a solo bike-packing trip, and solo-backpacked across the mountains (small ones) of this most favorite state for 2 weeks at a time.

The artist found the bird form useful in translating her personal delvings into existentialism— i.e. why make art at all? A rising bird, a seeking bird, a storm-tossed bird, a scrabbling-in-the-gritty-barnyard- dirt bird, a bird terrorized trying to escape the crazed snorting bull… and a carnival bird, all are used to symbolize the searching soul. Birds and Legs, was derived from images pulled from patterns in pressed powdered graphite suspended in water. The pigeon appears frequently as the artist would bring them into the studio to study.
The piece Dying Tracks, 2002, had its genesis in the smidgeon of brilliant surveyor’s string and her interaction dove in from there, with the visceral yanking of the surface in and out. A sluggish fly approached (fatally), gesso was applied, and as the hapless insect ran out of air it left a tiny swirl of tracks in the media. Mushroom Picker, captures the artist’s experience in the eerie atmosphere of the commercial mushroom house; Berry Picker, is a Mennonite fellow compadre in the commercial strawberry fields; Kneeling Woman, depicts the digging of potatoes from a garden.

The East End Gallery, Appleton, Wisconsin, is the first, and currently the only, venue to show Ludwig’s work. Gallery website: www.eastendgallery.net dave@eastendgallery.net

Diana Ludwig, Fine Artist and Illustrator
HC 1, Box 169, Belltown Road, Clarington, Pennsylvania 15828
330-530-2659, 814-752-6328
E-MAIL: drawingdiana@gmail.com
WEBSITE PORTFOLIOS: www.freediana.freeservers.com
http://dianaludwig.com/artgallery/main.php
http://www.photo.net/shared/community-member?user_id=478658
http://www.worldisround.com/home/diwigy/index.html


Artist Exhibitions



Exhibitions
Selected Solo Shows

Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery Project Fundraiser, Youngstown, Ohio, 2003
Between The Pages Coffeeshop in Conkey's Bookstore, Appleton, Wisconsin, 2002

Selected Juried Group Exhibitions

2007: First Unitarian Universalist Church's In Praise of the Arts show (IPOA) Youngstown, OH
2006: 70th Area Artists Annual, Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH
2006 – 2007 3rd Annual Cityscenes Photography Competition, Youngstown State University, OH
2006 Friends of the Library, Andover Rotary Club and the Andover Public Library Friends’ Juried Art Show, Andover, OH
2005 – 2006 2nd Annual Cityscapes Photography Competition, Youngstown State University
2005: The View From Dione, Ohio Art League Exhibition, Columbus, OH
2005: The Littlest Heroes 4th Annual Art for Children’s Sake Juried Art Show & Art Auction Benefit, Cleveland, OH
2005: 33rd Annual Regional Juried Art Exhibition, Hoyt Institute of Fine Arts, New Castle, PA
2004 – 2005 1st Annual Cityscapes Photography Competition, Youngstown State University
2004: 33rd Annual Valley Art Center Juried Exhibition & Competition, Chagrin Falls, OH
2004: 40th Annual Juried Exhibition of Trumbull Art Gallery, Warren, OH
2004: 2nd Annual Juried Art Show at New Wilmington Area Arts & Heritage Festival
Invitational Salon Exhibition of Small Works 2004, 2005, 2007, Kutztown, PA
Westmoreland Art Nationals Exhibition, Youngwood, PA, 2004
2004: Sixth Annual Rescue Mission Art Auction, Girard, OH
2003: 22nd Women Artists: A Celebration (YWCA), Butler Institute of American Art
2003: 67th Area Artists Annual, Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio
2003: Artists on a Mission for The Mission Art Show and Sale, Warren, Ohio
Terrance Gallery National All-On-Paper Juried Art Show (1982)
Moravian College Print National (1981)

Other Exhibitions

Exhibition in the Great Room, Arts Youngstown Inc, Youngstown, Ohio, 2008
Eleventh Annual Alumni Art Show, Kutztown University, Pennsylvania, 2007
Nissen Gallery, Trumbull Area Artists’ (TAA) Shows, Warren, Ohio, three in 2006, 2007
Austintown Township Park Art & Craft Show, Austintown, Ohio, 2006
Celebrating the Mahoning Valley Fine Art Calendar Competition, Cornersburg, Ohio, 2006
Junior League of Youngstown’s 2006 Art Show & Open House, Youngstown Club, 2006
34th Annual Altrusa Holiday Fantasy, Warren, Ohio, 2006
15th Annual Edgewater Arts Festival, Edgewater, New Jersey, 2006
Inspired by Nature, art exhibit and sale, Villa Maria, Pennsylvania, 2005, 2006
Road Bird, monoprint at Birdspace poetry reading, McDonough Museum of Art, Youngstown, Ohio, Oct. 12, 2005
Festival In The Forest, Tionesta, Pennsylvania, 2005
Pig Iron Press Community Street Festival, Youngstown, Ohio, 2005
Sixth Annual Rescue Mission of Mahoning Valley Benefit Art Auction, Girard, Ohio, 2004
Angels For Animals Holiday Art Show and Sale, Canfield, Ohio, 2003
Sixth Annual Alumni Art Show, Kutztown University, Pennsylvania, 2002

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Artist Publications



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Artist Collections



Numerous private, corporate, museum, gallery and government collections detailed information coming soon.

Artist Favorites