Diane O’Leary (Opeche-Nah-Se), PhD (1939–2013), was a Native American multimedia artist, half Irish and half

Comanche The Comanche (), or Nʉmʉnʉʉ (, 'the people'), are a Tribe (Native American), Native American tribe from the Great Plains, Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the List of federally recognized tri ...

. 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 a city in and the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and Interstate 35, I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin, Texas, Austin. The city had a U.S. census estimated 2024 popul ...

to an Irish father and Comanche mother. Growing up during the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

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 university, private research university in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. It was established in 1873 by brothers Addison Clark, Addison and Randolph Clark as the AddRan Male & Female College. It i ...

(BA, BS, MS),

Bacone College Bacone College, formerly Bacone Indian University, is a private 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 American Bapt ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

(MS), and

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

(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

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 Modernism, modernist painter and drafter, draftswoman whose career spanned seven decades and whose work remained largely independent of major art movements. Called the "M ...

, 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 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), 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 The Oregon Coast Aquarium is an aquarium in Newport, Oregon, 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 (orca), Keiko, the orca who starred ...

, Newport, Oregon *

Denver Art Museum The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. With an encyclopedic collection of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world, the DAM is one of the largest art museums betwe ...

, Colorado *

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue between 88th and 89th Street (Manhattan), 89th Streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It hosts a permanent coll ...

, 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, United States. Founded in 1866, the Peabody Museum is one of the oldest and largest museums focusing on anthropologica ...

, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts *

, 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 medi ...

, 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 artists People from Waco, Texas Painters from Texas 21st-century Native American women American people of Irish descent