My Capricorn Connection
by April Sullivan
Our February 2024 Artist of the Month is Austin artist Diane Perez. I have known Diane for several years. Her art takes many forms, such as black and white silhouette portraits, colorful abstracts, graffiti style, and so much more. She paints in her free time and loves doing commissions. Only recently did we realize that we were born one day apart in the same year. We both turned 50 years old at the end of December 2023 and first talked about how that feels.
Diane said, “I feel fabulous about turning 50! It gives me such a great feeling of gratification to look back to the past 25+ years of me creating my art, and seeing how much it’s grown.
“My medium is primarily acrylic. I started creating art in 1994. So it has been 30 years… The love of creating is what inspires me to paint. I think of a vision for what I would like to create, and then I go for it.”
She went on to tell me more about her artistic process.
“Before I actually lay anything onto a blank canvas, I come up with a ‘vision’ for what I would like create. I research shapes and color combinations and study them. I then begin to sketch out what I have visualized, and once I have my sketch fully finished, I go into it with different colors, trying to find the perfect combinations for what I am trying to accomplish. If it is a silhouette sketch, I simply use black acrylic paint to bring it out.”
Next, we talked about how her disabilities impact her art and her world. Diane is an artist who is DeafBlind.
“What I would like for people to know about the DeafBlind community, is that there are so many that are talented in one way or another. I believe there is a ‘stigma’ attached to the term ‘DeafBlind.’ That those who are DeafBlind are limited or simply do not have the means or capability of creating art. Far from the truth.”
Diane also lives with mental health challenges.
“Because my mental health comprises of highs and lows, I find that my artwork can play into the ‘depressed’ stages of my mental health as well as the ‘highs’ of my mental health. In my ‘depressed’ stages I find it harder to be inspired with something to create. But I push myself to create something anyways; otherwise, I will feel more depressed… To be honest, most of those pieces are my least favorite. I like some of them, but not many. When I am in the ‘high’ stages, my artwork tends to take off at a higher speed. Like, sketching comes with less effort. Those are usually my favorite pieces.”
So what is Diane working on now and how can you keep up with her art career?
“Right now, I am currently working on a 4-piece canvas set of ‘Flamenco’ dancers. Each one is in a different dance pose, and they are different colors. Red, blue, green, and gold yellow.
“Right now, I do not have a website or Instagram. Most of my work is on my Facebook page, ‘Gigi Productions.’ I just started the page, so I don’t have a lot of my work there yet. Still a work in progress.”
We finished with her advice to other artists with disabilities.
“My advice to any artist, with a disability or not: KEEP creating. No matter what your style of art is. Whether or not you are selling it or not, KEEP creating. Creating is medicine for the soul. It is your ‘quiet’ space. Creating feeds your mind, and it is therapy for different emotions you may be feeling. Creating can be symbolic to the ‘essence’ of who you are. So KEEP creating.”
As I write this blog, I am looking at our most recent horoscope from The Austin Chronicle. It reads:
“CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Before poet Louise Glück published her first book, Firstborn, it was rejected by 28 publishers. When it finally emerged, she suffered from writer’s block. Her next book didn’t appear until eight years after the first one. Her third book arrived five years later, and her fourth required another five years. Slow going! But here’s the happy ending: By the time she died at age 80, she had published 21 books and won the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature. By my astrological reckoning, you are now at a phase, in your own development, comparable to the time after Glück’s fourth book: well-primed, fully geared up, and ready to make robust progress.”
Watch out world, Diane and I are in our prime, geared up, and ready to make robust progress!