Collaborating with artists is one of the BEST parts of working at Denik. Our collection with Diana Kelley launched today, so we asked her some questions about her art. Her work is vibrant, fun, and experimental. It catches your eye and makes a notebook really stand out.
Feel free to check our notebook collection with her, here.
1. What has driven you to be an artist?
First, I just love to make beautiful things. I love the qualities of different materials, the way imagery and pattern evoke memory and atmosphere. If my work has a subject, I think it’s transformation: the process of combining, altering, layering, mixing new and found material. I’m fascinated by the way old things become new, how art and material culture are both in a constant state of reinvention.
2. What if your favorite medium to work with?
It’s hard for me to choose a favorite medium, but for pure fun and versatility, I love digital mixed media. Working digitally lets me experiment as much as I like, playing with color, texture, layers and transparency in ways that would be very difficult to do in traditional media. When I do draw, paint, or make cyanotype prints, that material inevitably gets incorporated into digital artwork as well.
3. Do you have a favorite piece? A piece that brought you the most joy to create?
I have many favorites, but my design “Handprint Blooms” (now part of Denik’s collection) stands out for me as particularly special. I had so much fun creating it, learning new techniques and experimenting with how I put the elements together. There’s so much energy and craftsmanship in the finished work, and it represents my style really well.
4. What are your biggest dreams/goals you hope to accomplish with your Artwork?
I would love to have a studio with space to make art on a large scale, hold classes, and curate exhibitions. So many of my artist friends are talking about wanting to make bigger work, maybe as a reaction to the constraints we’ve been under during the pandemic. It would be such a gift to have that much room to experiment!
5. Is there any particular advice that has fueled your creative journey?
Two ideas that motivate me: “There’s no such thing as a failed experiment.” Some things won’t turn out as intended, there will be ink blobs and weird sketches and concepts that resist coming together, but every effort teaches you something. You never know what beauty will come from the trash basket of your ideas!
“An arrow finds its target.” I believe that when you give your work energy and purpose and fire it out into the world, it will strike where it’s supposed to. Art will find the eyes that need to see it.
