Diane Falkenhagen is an American artist, she is known as a metalsmith and creates mixed-media custom jewelry which incorporates two dimensional imagery. She is based in Texas.

Early life and education

In 1977, she received her B.F.A. degree from the University of North Texas and in 1981 she received her M.F.A. degree from the

University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas ...

. At University of Houston, she studied sculpture under

James Surls James Arthur Surls (born 1943) is an American modernist artist and educator, known for his large sculptures. He founded the Lawndale Alternative Arts Space at the University of Houston in the 1970s. Biography James Arthur Surls was born April ...

and John Alexander.

Career

For more than three decades Diane Falkenhagen has been creating and exhibiting art jewelry. A native Texan, Falkenhagen lives and works on west

Galveston Island Galveston Island ( ) is a barrier island on the Texas Gulf Coast in the United States, about southeast of Houston. The entire island, with the exception of Jamaica Beach, is within the city limits of the City of Galveston in Galveston County. T ...

. Between 1992 and 1995, she lived in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. Her time living in

is reflected in her use of

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

n folklore in some of her art. Falkenhagen’s jewelry is held in private collections and is exhibited all over the world. Some of her work had been featured in the publications ''American Craft'', ''Metalsmith'', ''Ornament'', ''Southwest Art'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', and the books: ''Color on Metal'', ''500 Brooches'' and ''500 Necklaces''. After

Hurricane Ike Hurricane Ike () was a powerful tropical cyclone that swept through portions of the Greater Antilles and Northern America in September 2008, wreaking havoc on infrastructure and agriculture, particularly in Cuba and Texas. Ike took a sim ...

in 2008 inundated her West Galveston island studio she received a CERF+ Emergency Grant and CERF+ Emergency Revovery Loan. She is best known for her mixed media jewelry in which she transforms 2-D images into 3-D objects. The images serve the same purpose in the pieces as a gemstone would, drawing the viewer in and focusing their attention. Her images and inspiration come from

art history Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wit ...

, and

memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered, ...

. She has also been inspired by the artist, Rene Magritte. One of her favorite forms of jewelry to create are brooches, "because there are fewer restrictions," and much of her work is done in series based on a central theme. Many of her brooches have a "narrative" where the jewelry is meant to convey part of a story. In some of her jewelry, she uses images of reproductions of paintings which she transfers onto

polymer clay Polymer clay is a type of hardenable modeling clay based on the polymer polyvinyl chloride (PVC). It typically contains no clay minerals, but like mineral clay a liquid is added to dry particles until it achieves gel-like working properties, and s ...

. The reproductions are further "enhanced" with colored pencils and then framed in various metal designs created by Falkenhagen. Falkenhagen also uses

hard wax {{unreferenced, date=June 2015 Hard Wax is a record shop located in the Kreuzberg borough of Berlin, Germany. It was founded in December 1989 by Mark Ernestus at the ground floor of a Reichenberger Straße’s building. It is specialized in techno ...

in her surface treatments of her transferred images.

Affiliations

In 1996, she was elected to the Board of Directors of the (SNAG). Falkenhagen began teaching jewelry-making as early as 1979 in Galveston. She runs workshops and lectures around the country and is an assistant professor at the

. She is also a former member of the editorial advisory committee of ''Metalsmith'' magazine. She started teaching at Galveston College in 1981 and remained there till 1992, when she moved to

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

. Her work was shown at Pittsburgh's Society for Contemporary Craft in ''Transforamtion 8: Contemporary Works in Small Metals'' in 2012.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Falkenhagen, Diane American women artists Year of birth missing (living people) Living people University of North Texas alumni University of Houston alumni American jewellers People from Galveston, Texas American jewelry designers 21st-century American women Women jewellers