By Bonnie Gangelhoff
Ohio-based painter Diane Farr is inspired by calming and beautiful things. ARRANGEMENT WITH FORTUNE COOKIES happens to be one of her personal favorites, perhaps for sentimental reasons, she admits. “I love Chinese food. This piece reminds me of when I lived in Boston because I lived on Chinese food,” she says. Farr relished setting up the tableaux—placing the cookies to create a dialogue between them and the flowers. She also delighted in the fact that each cookie contains a mystery message lodged inside.
No matter what genre she is working in, Farr says she always thinks about the shapes as well as the emotions she wishes to convey. “I am not trying to replicate exactly what I am looking at, so maybe you could call me a contemporary realist,” she says. Farr has studied with David Leffel, Sally Strand, Calvin Liang, and Ken Cadwallader. She is currently working on her masters of fine arts from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. See more of her work at www.dmfarrstudio.com.
Featured in our annual “21 Over 31” feature in November 2009