Art and Art History Program

Diana Baumbach

Associate Professor: Foundations

Email: dbaumbac@uwyo.edu • Website: www.dianabaumbach.com
Office: VA 234

B.F.A., Washington University in St. Louis, 2003.
M.F.A., Southern Illinois University, 2007.

About

Originally from Oak Park, IL, Diana Baumbach earned her BFA from Washington University in St. Louis (2003) and her MFA from Southern Illinois University Carbondale (2007). In addition to numerous juried and invitational group shows, she has had solo exhibitions at Box13 (TX), Washington State University, Dynamo Expo (Enschede, Netherlands) and Arkansas State University, among others. Baumbach has undertaken public art projects at the Sun Valley Center for the Arts (Ketchum, ID), the Children’s Learning Center (Pinedale, WY) and the Albany County Public Library (Laramie, WY). She is currently working on public art project for the University of Wyoming’s Early Care and Education Center. She received a Visual Art Fellowship from the Wyoming Arts Council in 2015 after receiving Honorable Mention three times (2011, 2013 and 2014). Baumbach is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Wyoming where she lives with her husband Shelby and sons Shepard and Holland.

Artist Statement

For the past 10 years, my work has focused on intersections between art, craft and everyday life.

With a background in printmaking, the objects and images I make are informed by repetition, process and materiality. Yet printmaking now serves as a conceptual underpinning rather than an overt medium. I favor direct manipulation of materials, especially those with lasting ties to traditional craft such as paper and textiles.

I employ repetitive – sometimes obsessive – processes such as piercing, punching, cutting and folding. These involve a basic action which becomes automatic to the body over time. Once I understand the simple mechanics of a process, subtle variations come to life. Monotonous processes allow me the ability to start and stop. As such, my studio travels home with me to be worked on while also participating in day-to-day domestic activities, not unlike quilting, knitting and other historically gendered labor. Using patterns allows me to highlight the imperfections and variations inherent in all things handmade. The lack of color encourages the viewer to slow down and notice the subtle nuances in a muted palette.

My recent series entitled Postpartum Documentation (PPD) began following the premature birth of my first son Shepard in December 2012 and is meant to be read as a visual conversation with Mary Kelly’s Post-Partum Document. This series includes 365 4”x4” squares that marked the first year of Shepard’s life. Each day I tied a French knot in the approximated center of the square and then perforated concentric circles from that point if time allowed. With each ring I re-centered myself both visually and metaphorically. The 365 pieces were later compiled into 12 distinct months creating a record of time not unlike On Kawara’s Today series or Eleanor Antin’s Carving: A Traditional Sculpture. This work has helped me to negotiate motherhood and art making by integrating meditative practices into my daily life, teaching me to embrace the times when my conception of creative activity must be approached more broadly.

In my Meditation on White series, I mine my collection of domestic relics to construct opulent mandalas made from banal materials. By incorporating commonplace objects such as paper plates, decommissioned Onesies, broken childhood necklaces and popped birthday balloons, I hope to elevate the barrage of stuff that flows through our lives. As a result, I fix in time what might otherwise be thrown away with the trash. Formally, these pieces reference things as disparate as tree rings, moon cycles, domes and tutus, all of which are conceptually relevant to the work. I am interested in how lived experiences can inform art, and vice versa. The resulting work is admittedly sentimental, which is a quality that empowers my practice. Through my creative research, I hope to raise questions about the plurality of motherhood – and identity – in the twenty first century.