Diane O'Leary
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Diane O’Leary (Opeche-Nah-Se), PhD (1939–2013), was a Native American multimedia artist, half Irish and half
Comanche The Comanche or Nʉmʉnʉʉ ( com, Nʉmʉnʉʉ, "the people") are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in La ...
. Her work advocates for the equality and dignity of the oppressed and misused, including Native Americans, women, and the environment. She is most known for her female native figures pieces, combining her scientific education and creative talents to create abstract yet accurate body portraits. O'Leary's latest work was a collage series advocating for the poor environmental state of Oregon's
Tillamook Bay Tillamook Bay is a small inlet of the Pacific Ocean, approximately 6 mi (10 km) long and 2 mi (3 km) wide, on the northwest coast of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located just north of Cape Meares in western Tillamook Count ...
.


Background

Diane O’Leary was born in
Waco, Texas Waco ( ) is the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a 2020 population of 138,486, making it the 22nd-most populous city in the ...
to an Irish father and Comanche mother. Growing up during the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
developed her artistic craft and style, learning to be thrifty and resourceful with what was available. These experiences were the base to her later artistic career, being recognized internationally for her weaving, quilting, lithography, printmaking and tapestry art. O’Leary was a noted piano prodigy as a child and later went on to study Baroque literature in college. She also studied nursing and archaeology. Despite all her continued education which included
Texas Christian University Texas Christian University (TCU) is a private research university in Fort Worth, Texas. It was established in 1873 by brothers Addison and Randolph Clark as the Add-Ran Male & Female College. It is affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples ...
(BA, BS, MS),
Bacone College Bacone College, formerly Bacone Indian University, is a private tribal college in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Founded in 1880 as the Indian University by missionary Almon C. Bacone, it was originally affiliated with the mission arm of what is now Americ ...
,
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
(MS), and
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
(MA, MFA, PhD), O’Leary never had institutional training in the fine arts. She nevertheless managed to intertwine her artistic passions into her scholarly studies. While a nurse, she became a medical artist, drawing what she observed in surgeries and creating technology to improve the procedures. She also conducted environmental research on Oregon's
Tillamook Bay Tillamook Bay is a small inlet of the Pacific Ocean, approximately 6 mi (10 km) long and 2 mi (3 km) wide, on the northwest coast of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located just north of Cape Meares in western Tillamook Count ...
for a Congressional proposal for wetland preservation.


Art work

O’Leary's involvement with the Tillamoock Bay proposal inspired her to create a collage series promoting the Bay's wildlife entitled ''The Living Waters of Tillamook Bay.'' Congress accepted her proposal and her collage series became its own exhibit at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in 2005. The project was conducted in the ancient Japanese printing technique called Gyotaku. She learned Japanese during this time in order to communicate personally with Japanese Gyotaku artists. O’Leary's style borders on the abstract yet keeps to the proportionate makeup of her subjects, combining her scientific and artistic techniques. O'Leary periodically studied under famed Bacone College art instructor, Dick West, which was the extent of her formal art training. O’Leary studied under the guidance of professional artists while living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. These artists included
Emil Bisttram Emil Bisttram (1895–1976) was an American artist who lived in New York and Taos, New Mexico, who is known for his modernist work. Life and works Emil Bisttram was born in Nagylak, Hungary in 1895 (today Nădlac, Romania). When he was 11 years ...
, Eric Gibberd, and Linton Kistler, who she developed further painting skills and learned lithography from. O’Leary's interactions with
Georgia O'Keeffe Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) was an American modernist artist. She was known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O'Keeffe has been called the "Mother of Amer ...
, influenced O’Leary's botanical pieces. Other's such as
Helen Frankenthaler Helen Frankenthaler (December 12, 1928 – December 27, 2011) was an American abstract expressionist painter. She was a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting. Having exhibited her work for over six decades (early 1950s u ...
and
Louise Nevelson Louise Nevelson (September 23, 1899 – April 17, 1988) was an American sculptor known for her monumental, monochromatic, wooden wall pieces and outdoor sculptures. Born in the Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Kyiv Oblast, ...
influenced her art's modernist flair. O’Leary took these influences and combined them with her personal style, allowing her own cultural heritage to be presented. She is best known for her figure studies of Native American women, representing them in their historical context through her own non-traditional style. Her work advocates for the equality and dignity of the oppressed and misused, including Native Americans, women, and the environment.


Accomplishments

O’Leary's work has been displayed internationally in public galleries as well as private collections. Her pieces have been included in collections throughout the United States including the
National Estuary Program In the United States, the National Estuary Program (NEP) provides grants to states where governors have identified nationally significant estuaries that are threatened by pollution, land development, or overuse. Governors have identified a total o ...
in Washington D.C. Her work has also been used in television shows and film sets.


Featured in

* "Earth Song, Moon Dreams: Paintings by American Indian Women," by Patricia Janis Broder *
Arizona Highways (magazine) ''Arizona Highways'' is a magazine that contains travelogues and artistic photographs related to the U.S. state of Arizona. It is published monthly in Phoenix by a unit of the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT). Background The mag ...
, September 1972 * Organ Art Beat, www.opb.org * "Contemporary Southwest Jewelry," by Diana Pardue, Heard Museum * "American Indian Crafts and Culture," Volume 7 no.3, March 1973 * ''The Scottsdale Daily Progress'', March 1975 * ''The Indian Trader'', July 1978


Public collections

* Berne Museum, Berne, Switzerland *
Oregon Coast Aquarium __NOTOC__ The Oregon Coast Aquarium is an aquarium in Newport in the U.S. state of Oregon. Opened in 1992, the facility sits on along Yaquina Bay near the Pacific Ocean. The aquarium was home to Keiko, the orca who starred in the movie ''Free ...
, Newport, Oregon *
Denver Art Museum The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. With encyclopedic collections of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world, the DAM is one of the largest art museums between t ...
, Colorado *
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...
, New York, New York *
Heard Museum The Heard Museum is a private, not-for-profit museum in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, dedicated to the advancement of American Indian art. It presents the stories of American Indian people from a first-person perspective, as well as exhibitio ...
, Phoenix, Arizona * Museum of American Indian, Heye Foundation in New York * Mitchell Indian Museum, Kendall College, Evanston, Illinois * Millicent Rogers Foundation Museum, Taos, New Mexico * Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma *
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is a museum affiliated with Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1866, the Peabody Museum is one of the oldest and largest museums focusing on anthropological material, with ...
, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts *
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
, California *
Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian is a museum devoted to Native American arts. It is located in Santa Fe, New Mexico and was founded in 1937 by Mary Cabot Wheelwright, who came from Boston, and Hastiin Klah, a Navajo singer and medici ...
, Santa Fe, New Mexico


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:OLeary, Diane 1935 births 2013 deaths Comanche people Harvard University alumni Native American painters Native American women artists American multimedia artists Texas Christian University alumni Stanford University alumni 21st-century American women