Meet the Artist: Diana Marie in Her Own Words

My name is Diana Marie and I am an artist that specializes in 1950's and Mid Century style illustration. I graduated from The University of Arizona with my BFA in Studio Art from our Illustration, Design, and Animation program. After graduating I realized that I had more love for illustration than I was giving myself credit for. That's when I started working on my business; Diana Marie Art. There I sell prints, postcards, stickers- you name it. I'm also getting ready to properly open up my commissions so that everyone can have a piece of the pie!

As a kid I was incredibly into anything vintage related. I remember going to antique malls and being interested in whatever artifact that looked to be from the 1950's. I even had a salt and pepper shaker collection! I also watched so many vintage cartoons (Tex Avery, Looney Toons, Merry Melodies, etc.) waiting for my mom to get home from her late shifts. I especially enjoyed how a lot of the "attractive" women were drawn. That spurred me to draw virtually only women throughout my life and something that you can see in my existing work as an adult! I remember at one point just watching vintage television commercials on loop because I thought it was so fascinating.

Once I started to grasp a sense of style in college, I really became attracted to how the commercial printing process was done during the 1950's. So many consumable products with so much consumeristic illustration and design!  The splotchy ink blobs on cheap boxes that only came in a small range of colors for the purpose of faster production really ignited something in me. It was simple yet effective. So what if I did the same thing with my work? And that's what really started it all.

All of my work has simplified shapes and color palettes for that reason. It gives me a challenge every time to see how far I can take whatever subject I want to draw. I believe one of my favorite pieces overall has been my "Neon of Tucson". I had so much enjoyment going in person to observe a lot of these local signs as well as our local sign museum.

You can find my work on Instagram at @diana_marie_art or hit up my webpage www.dianamarieart.com