Assemblage by Diane Wright

Diane Wright’s assemblages have been showcased in galleries throughout Connecticut and in private homes across the country but her entrance into the world of art arrived at a young age. Wright always drew horses for she was madly in love with the cowboys in television and films but when her high school art teacher said she needed to enter something into a Scholastic Key contest, Wright didn’t draw a horse. Surprising herself, she was inspired to create a three dimensional sculpture of a bull made with chicken wire on a piece of barn-board… and it won a key!

Diane Wright creates an assemblage in her studio

When she considered college Wright wanted to go to art school with an idea that she would illustrate children’s books. Wright graduated from RISD with a degree in illustration.  After graduation she had ideas of opening a gallery but life had other plans.  She traveled to South Africa, was married, had children and later divorced and returned to the United States to provide for her family.

When Wright finally returned to the world of art she found she found artistic inspiration in ways that were tactile and three dimensional.  She came full circle back to that initial spark, the artist root that received acclaim those many years before. With an artistic eye for detail, a love of history and myth, Wright creates beautiful assemblages in her studio in northwest Connecticut.

She doesn’t like to describe the assemblage as she creates. She finds the patrons describe them and take ownership of them on their own. Wright says, “They (assemblages) are mostly personal things and I can give you a definition of each little item in each little thing that went together to make a piece” but she usually allows the patrons who gravitate toward her work to see their own stories in the assemblages.

How long does it take for an assemblage to be created? “60 years!” Wright laughs but in the humor there is a ring of truth.  In the 90’s when Wright began thinking about the shows she had worked on, Man of La Mancha came to mind but she wasn’t ready to create an assemblage inspired by it. Finally three years ago she began creating the work and it is still a work in progress.
She will know when it is complete for Wright says of her art, “it suddenly decides that now is the time”.  She points to items in a box and says she’s been looking at those images but has not chosen to use them until the time is right. Each item in an assemblage works cohesively into an artistic expression.

Wright’s work will be showcased from April 24^th to May 24^th with the opening reception April 25^th in the spotlight gallery of the Canton Gallery on the Green while the downstairs main gallery will host a Maxwell Shepard Memorial Fund showcase. Wright’s exhibit is entitled LIMBO and it will feature some of her larger, darker pieces.

For more information ….FIND DIANE L. WRIGHT ART ON FACEBOOK HERE AND LIKE THE PAGE!

Her website is HERE!