DIANA DERBY, b. 1953, Cambridge, MA
I was 20 before I attempted to express myself through art. I had planned to be a lawyer, but I would have been a mediocre lawyer. I found my world when I stumbled into art at college because you could take courses after 5pm. I sculpted, then embraced painting. I had the “aha” moment at 21 when I walked into an exhibition by an artist who seemed to have painted my paintings. I found out who the artist was, transferred to the school where he taught and he became my mentor. His name was Michael Spafford and he died recently. I was also able to study with Jacob Lawrence and Elaine deKooning. They showed me painting could be allegory. That it could be a way to tell a story. They encouraged me and pushed me to find my own stories often with a sense of history and justice as underlying supports. I have always been a figure painter because I don’t understand how to paint abstractly. I can appreciate some non-figurative work, I just can’t produce it. I do understand plane, shape, color, space and human frailty. I try to use all of that.
My subject trajectory has recently become pretty clear to me. In my twenties I used lots of ferocious horses, women from Greek & Roman mythology and everything was fast and furious. I calmed down, found birds, but painted them six feet across and usually in full flight. I got married and had a daughter. I painted lots and lots of life sized cows in every possible scenario including naked men falling out of the sky next to them. I found early 19th c. photography and created paintings referencing mostly women and children in stories that I made up about them. More cows, burning women, then war. I painted Baghdad on fire and soldiers bodies floating in the Euphrates. Then several years of the “Witnesses” to war. I painted images of the people that I imagined were standing just outside the blast zone of an
explosion. They do not have physical injuries but they have seen everything that war can bring. In 2010, my husband and I moved to India for two years then Moscow for four years. In India I painted black crows because the colors of India were too much and in Russia I painted one very large painting each of the four years. Three are allegories of three current Russian leaders with their crimes arrayed around them. The last is the best painting I have ever done. It depicts a Russian opposition leader assassinated while we were there, his corpse being observed by Stalin’s six year old daughter. Now I paint horses in joy and fury and women who were locked away in lunatic asylums.
EDUCATION
1978 Master Class, Elaine deKooning, Centrum Foundation Scholarship, Fort Worden, WA
1975-78 University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Michael Spafford, Jacob Lawrence, Robert Jones (painting)
Patti Warashina (ceramics)
1973-75 University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA, Political Science/Studio Art
1971-72 University of Willamette, Salem, OR, Political Science
EXHIBITIONS
SOLO
2025 “ASYLUM WOMEN” The Art League, Alex., VA
2012 “INDIA CROWS” Public Playhouse Gallery, Cheverly, MD
2010 “ACTION MEN” Park Cafe, Washington, DC
2008 “ACTION MEN” Antreasian Gallery, Baltimore, MD
GROUP
2006-present Gallery 75, The Torpedo Factory, Alexandria, VA
2004-present The Art League Gallery, Alexandria, VA,
various juried shows
2022 Foundry Gallery, Washington DC
Annual Regional Juried
2021 Torpedo Factory Artists Assoc., Fairfax, VA
Annual Regional Painting Competition
Prince George’s County 33rd Annual Juried
Harmony Hall, Fort Washington, MD
2010 CITY Gallery, Washington DC
1st Annual Regional Juried
Gallery West, Alexandria, VA
13th Annual Juried
2009 Visual Arts Center, Astoria, OR
“Au Naturel”, 3rd Internat’l Juried
2008 Viridian Gallery, New York, NY
19th Annual Internat’l Juried
Delaplane Visual Arts Center, Frederick, MD
Annual Regional Juried
Visual Arts Center, Astoria, OR
“Au Naturel”, 2nd Internat’l Juried
2007 Antreasian Gallery, Baltimore, MD
“Summer Nudes”, Annual Juried
Rehoboth Art League, Rehoboth, DE
Regional Juried
Touchstone Gallery, Washington DC
Annual Juried
2006 Target Gallery, Alexandria, VA
“Mixed Messages”, Internat’l Juried
1980-88 Costume & Set Design for Choreographers/Dancers:
Karen Scherwood, Seattle, WA and Ray Baker, Anchorage, AK
1980 Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA
Annual Juried
AWARDS
2010 Best in Show, CITY Gallery, Regional Juried,
Washington DC “Witness VI”
2007 Best in Show (July), Kirstein Award, Art League Gallery, Alexandria, VA “Baghdad Burning: Euphrates Harvest”
