Diana ZASADNYPrevious Artist

Trees and Diana Zasadny have a special arrangement. They stand there and look beautiful and mysterious and she captures their beauty and mystery - the steadfastness of their commitment to the earth and their dreamy stretching towards the sky.

They unabashedly pose for her, in groups or groves, inviting her to portray them in all their seasons. Skillfully selecting units of colour and assembling them into a story, she reveals the individuality and the collectiveness of nature's finest sentinels. Fascinated by the interplay of light and shadow, colour and shape, depth and detail, Diana reveals a shimmering, sensuous fragment of the mystical whole - trees becoming an apt metaphor for the human condition - bound to the earth but striving towards the light.

A meeting of heaven and earth, trees embody the groundedness and earthiness of terra firma with the ethereal embodiment of the spirit. Diana magically captures the essence of both, each tableau a tapestry of woven light and form - a coming together of the seen and unseen. Her foresty mosaics escape the territory of the visual and drift into the property of the auditory as her paintings have been described as needing to be seen and heard as the wind sways the trees and audibly rustles the leaves.

Born and raised in Lethbridge Alberta, Diana paints who she is - bringing her appreciation of nature born of her love of the prairie and the sky - to all her compositions.  Focusing primarily on landscape, Diana blends the boundaries of impressionist interpretation and contemporary abstaction into a glimpse of that elusive realm of life between reality and imagination.

(written by Lison McCullough)

Born Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, 1968

Education

  • 1991 Alberta College of Art and Design – Graduated with Distinction in Drawing/Printmaking

Exhibitions

  • 2003
    • Canmore Artists and Artisans Guild, Joy of Autumn, Canmore Library Art Gallery, Canmore, AB
    • Candler Art Gallery, Group Exhibition, Camrose, AB
    • Leighton Centre Annual Juried Members’ Show, Calgary, AB
    • Banff Midsummers Ball, Banff Centre, Banff, AB
  • 2002
    • Memorial Portfolio of the American Print Alliance-traveling exhibit, USA
    • Pressed and Pulled X, National Juried Printmaking Exhibition, Georgia College and State University, USA
  • 2001
    • Evolution: New Works by Diana Zasadny, Image 54 Gallery, Calgary, AB
    • International Works on Paper, Juried Show, SOHO20, New York, NY
    • Innovation on Paper: Nova Scotia Printmakers Association, University of Acadia, Wolfville, NS
    • Brave New Prints Portfolio, Alberta Printmakers’ Society, McMullen Gallery, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB
  • 2000
    • Brave New Prints Portfolio, Telus Convention Centre, ARTWALK 2000, Calgary, AB
    • Calgary Printmakers, Image 54 Gallery, Calgary, AB
  • 1999
    • Grace and Glamour ’99, Fundraiser, Grace Women’s Health Centre, Exhibition and Auction, Calgary, AB
    • Northern Alberta Society of Printmakers, Fundraising Auction, Edmonton, AB
  • 1998
    • X: Ten Year Anniversary Portfolio, Alberta Printmakers Society, Gallery San Chun, Calgary, AB
    • Christmas Gift Show, Image 54 Gallery, Calgary, AB
    • Malaspina Printmakers Society, Havana Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
    • Tales from the Press, Little Gallery, University of Calgary
  • 1999
    • Atlin Art Centre Fundraising Auction, Calgary, AB
  • 1997
    • University of Calgary Theatre – Alberta Printmakers Society Show
  • 1996
    • Alberta Printmakers Society Annual Show and Sale, Mount Royal Village, Calgary, AB
  • 1995
    • Alberta Printmakers Society Annual Show and Sale, Penny Lane, Calgary, AB
  • 1994
    • Oliver Building Studio Show, Lethbridge, AB
  • 1993
    • Alberta Theatre Projects, Group Exhibition, Calgary, AB
    • Art in the March: International Women’s Day Exhibition, New Gallery, Calgary, AB
  • 1991
    • ‘Square Deal Cubed’, New Gallery, Calgary, AB
    • Directions IV – Nova Corporation of Alberta, Calgary, AB
    • Presence of Absence (installation of Daniel Buren design) Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Calgary, AB
    • CANADA/JAPAN, Travelling Printmaking Exhibition, Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Involving: Alberta College of Art and Design, U of A, and University of Tokyo

Collections

  • Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Edmonton, Alberta
  • Alberta College of Art and Design Archives, Calgary, Alberta
  • Calbridge Developments Ltd, Calgary, Alberta
  • Calgary Petroleum Club, Calgary, Alberta
  • Collins Barrow Limited, Calgary, Alberta
  • Dermatica, Edmonton, Alberta
  • Ernst & Young Chartered Accountants, Calgary, Alberta
  • Parlee McLaws Barristers, Edmonton, Alberta
  • Paul Lavoie Interior Design, Calgary, Alberta
  • Numerous Private Collections

Evolution is a bold and exciting series of fine art collagraph prints by artist, Diana Zasadny. Zasadny is influenced by symmetry and opposite visual elements, with motive rooted in the prairie landscape, the subconscious and eastern influences. The works is produced from a cycle of evolving ideas, each unique and energizing the next print in the series. Diana Zasadny uses a direct and forceful technique to create the richly coloured, sensual images you see here. Using string, food wrap, cardboard, wire and other found objects, she constructs a plate, which is then inked and run through a press to transfer the colours and textures to paper. She then applies a glossy surface to the work enhancing the effects.Zasadny lives and works in Calgary, Canada, where she graduated with distinction from the Alberta College of Art and Design. Her work has been exhibited in western Canada and Japan and is part of many private and corporate collections.