{"id":21605,"date":"2005-11-03T13:35:11","date_gmt":"2005-11-03T19:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=21605"},"modified":"2020-04-15T19:04:21","modified_gmt":"2020-04-16T01:04:21","slug":"from-mundane-to-monumental-diana-garff-gardiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/from-mundane-to-monumental-diana-garff-gardiner\/","title":{"rendered":"From Mundane to Monumental: Diana Garff Gardiner"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nIn her 1995 Masters thesis, Salt Lake City artist Diana Garff Gardiner quotes American watercolorist Charles Hawthorne: \u201cBetter to make a big thing out of a little subject than to make a little thing out of a big one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gardiner takes this advice to heart as she finds focus and formality in everyday objects. In her paintings and collages she reveals the beauty of the commonplace and the seduction of simplicity. \u201cMy influence is based on where I find my center,\u201d says Gardiner. \u201cSome people go to church or out in nature to find their center, but for me it\u2019s being able to capture a little bit of my past, and it\u2019s also about the rituals I do every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

After receiving a BFA from the University of Utah in 1974, Gardiner took a break from school to raise a family. In 1985 she decided to return to the University where she had the opportunity to study with Paul Davis, David Dornan and Ed Maryon. \u201cIt was interesting, because at the time they wanted me to work up in the studio at the school, but I was too separate from the place that centered me, so eventually I got permission from my committee to work from home.\u201d She moved her studio into her dining room, using a piano bench as an easel. Gardiner credits her committee chair, Paul Davis, for giving her the support she needed. \u201cHe saw that I had potential. He saw past the fact that I was a woman with a family in a Mormon culture. He was hard on me, but he encouraged me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Through graduate school, Gardiner strived to establish a strong artistic identity, exploring different methods and materials. She experimented with objects other than brushes to apply paint, such as kitchen utensils, and eventually she turned to collage, using grocery labels and garbage in place of paint. The result was pleasantly surprising. \u201cThe surfaces were very lively. They started to imitate the kitchen counters after you made a big mess. To me that felt really honest so I started accentuating that with the paint on top of the paper.\u201d<\/p>\n

Naturally, Gardiner drew subject matter from her surroundings and her daily housecleaning rituals. She came to realize a \u201ccurious harmony\u201d in herself. She describes it as \u201can absurd juxtaposition that involves the urgent need to make art and the necessity of dealing with the menial tasks of everyday life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Her content is clearly domestic, and one might observe \u201cPop\u201d influences with the depiction of consumer products (soup cans, condiments, etc.)\u00a0in a fine art environment, but Gardiner insists that an important distinction be made: \u201cThe coolness of \u2019Pop\u2019 art eliminates the love and devotion of the subject,\u201d she explains. \u201cMy intent is to give back those emotions and elevate the symbols of the industrial revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gardiner finds motivation and meaning in the objects surrounding her: a washer and dryer, a bowl of cereal, condiments in the refrigerator. She is inspired by the words of Joseph Campbell, who claimed: \u201cBy participating in a ritual, you are participating in a myth.\u201d Gardiner began to write mythologies based on her daily rituals. She painted and collaged images she wrote about, attaching gender to the objects in her kitchen. She also did a self-portrait of a can of Ajax; underneath the surface of course, was a mythological story. The objects began to take on a life of their own; they began to mean more than she anticipated.<\/p>\n