Diane Englander

I hope to produce spaces for reflection and relative tranquility, the completed work an antidote to anxiety, without devolving into the soporific. Navigating that slippery slope is my biggest challenge: to provide a sense of meditative calm, but with sufficient dissonance so the work can't be dismissed as utterly serene or resolved. I approach that challenge using relatively simple elements -- mulberry paper, raw canvas, watercolor paper, thinned acrylics, and water-soluble pencils -- and few colors that in combination produce a range of nuance while avoiding the gratuitously complicated. I am usually creating a relationship between a subtly complex background and a somewhat crude, minimal line, with the conflict between the two producing an animating tension without crossing into discord. This rhythmic interplay generates a sense of space that allows relatively small pieces an expansiveness beyond their actual size.