Sketchbook runes...

Now that I have completed all the drawings (156!) for my Tarot colouring book with Red Wheel/Weiser, I have a chance to experiment with my sketchbook again. It does seem odd not to be working on the Tarot book after spending so much time with it since last July but I continue to play with images for another even more ancient system of meditation/divination, the fascinating elder futhark runes...

sowilo

algiz

mannaz

dagaz

hagalaz

A magazine article on my miniatures work in DollsHouse and Miniature Scene

A lovely new interview and article (with lots of photos) on my miniatures work in natural materials appears in the current March issue of  DollsHouse and Miniature Scene! Paper or digital copies of the magazine can be ordered here: www.dollshouseandminiaturescene.co.uk
Many thanks to DollsHouse and Miniature Scene and especially to Carl Golder, editor, for his interest in my work! 
Here's the cover with a photo of my work in the upper right corner of the page.

Tarot Color and Learn Book by Diana

Coming soon... My tarot color and learn book from Red Wheel/Weiser publishing...I sent the manuscript off to my editor, the wonderful Judika Illes, earlier this week! What a big but enjoyable work it has been! Here is a small preview of some of the major arcana images for coloring.

Land Art Workshop In May With Diana Heyne

“Raw Earth” Art Workshop

May 19-22, 2015, Burgundy, France

Guided by Diana Heyne

visual and performance artist 

(workshop will be conducted in English)

Hosted by the International Video Dance Festival of Burgundy

I will be facilitating a workshop on land art/natural materials improvisation in May, in conjunction with the International Video Dance Festival of Burgundy, France and would love to see you there! We will be working with found materials to create ephemeral installations in a varied landscape wild space park in the small city of Le Creusot, France. There is also the exciting possibility to work with dancers and video dance artists in attendance at the festival  to create performance works around the natural material installations. There will be a screening for these collaborative works as part of the festival and other opportunities to view screenings of some of the best in international video dance works.

“Raw Earth” Art Workshop

May 19-22, 2015, Burgundy, France 

Guided by Diana Heyne, visual and performance artist 

Hosted by the International Video Dance Festival of Burgundy

Raw Earth is a hands-on workshop for creative improvisation in sculpture, using materials found in nature to create installations variously known as land art or site specific works within the parks and public green spaces of Le Creusot, France. Through its affiliation with the International Video Dance Festival of Burgundy the workshop offers the added level of collaborating with artists from the disciplines of video dance and performance to create events centered on and inspired by sculptural works in the landscape.

The workshop is open to professional visual and performing artists from all media, as well as university art students, who wish to engage with natural spaces as a source of both creative materials and the site of art making itself.

Practical aspects will involve discussion of techniques and materials and most importantly, hands on building, either individually or collaboratively, of improvisational sculpture within the landscape, using found and natural materials in an ecologically sensitive manner. One day of the workshop will be dedicated to a creative collaboration with dancers and filmmakers from the International Video Dance Festival of Burgundy in order to create a short experimental film that will be screened publicly at the end of the workshop.

Inspiration will be provided through the presentation of historical and contemporary land art images and brainstorming/discussion sessions for all participants. In addition to daily workshop activities, participants have the possibility to attend free screenings of the International Video Dance Festival of Burgundy in the evenings. This year’s screenings are dedicated to an exploration of the “the politics of space”, including ecology.

Workshop leader: Multidisciplinary artist Diana Heyne's work in found and natural material assemblage and performance has been exhibited and performed in galleries and theatres across the US and in Europe. Informed by a strong engagement with the natural world, cultural history, and mythology, her work is found in public and private collections in the US, Asia, Australia and Europe. From 2003-2008 Diana worked with the internationally recognized design studio of Applied Imagination creating "botanical architecture" and assisting with installations at venues around the US such as the New York Botanical Garden and the National Botanical Garden in Washington, DC.

Dates: May 19-22, 2015 (recommended arrival evening of Monday May 18th, depart afternoon/evening Saturday May 23-after project screening)

Where: The workshop is held in the small city of Le Creusot, France (in the region of Burgundy, or Bourgogne in French). Le Creusot is located one hour from Paris and 30 minutes from Lyon via TGV (fast train). Most visitors from outside France fly into Paris or Lyon. Within Europe and France, numerous train and bus possibilities also exist. Contact us for details. All workshop and festival events are held within easy walking distance.

Housing: We can provide a full list of hotels and housing options upon request. Below are the special rates for workshop/festival guests. All locations are within easy walking distance of the workshop space and festival events. There are a limited number of rooms available at each site, so you must reserve early (usually only a credit card number is needed to hold your room and you will not be charged before your arrival). Contact us for more information and reservation assistance:
 • Le Crouse student residence (private room with toilet/shower, shared kitchen) for those with a valid student card only: 125€ (total for 5 night stay)
 • La Belle Epoque hotel (private room, 1 bed with toilet/shower): 255€ (5 nights), or shared room (2 beds + shower/toilet) for 188€ per person (5 nights). Website: http://la-belle-epoque-hotel-restaurant.com/
 • Hôtel Jour et Nuit (festival partner) private room (1 bed, shower/toilet): 420€ (7 nights). Double rooms are also available, but without separate beds.

Cost: The fee for participating in the workshop is 150€. If you are offered a place in the workshop, you will be asked to pay a deposit of 50€ via bank transfer within three weeks. The remaining cost will be due the first day of the workshop.

How to Apply: Please send a message that explains your interest in the workshop, your artistic background and experience. If you have work samples (in any medium) available, feel free to include 3-5 images in attachment or provide links to a website.

E-mail to: info@videodansebourgogne.com

Burgundy in December: a countryside in fog

Wishing you all a joyful and creative New Year!

I spent the final days of December in the watery, still lush countryside of Burgundy (Bourgogne in French). It is an area I know well and have photographed numerous times in various seasons but this visit I was gifted with some night time snow dustings and most of all, a number of days of fogs that lingered until after noon. I have included some of my favourite views of nature and human made here in landscapes that I hope share some of the magical ambiance of this special area and my meanderings there.

Walking out all the spiderwebs were full of jewels...

and the hedges bright with berries and frosty leaves.

In France the art of pruning trees and training them to various shapes has long been a highly developed art that results in some fascinating, if rather unnatural forms, such as the espalier visible in many miniature paintings of gardens in the Middle Ages. This form was often employed to save space in the popular enclosed gardens where fruit and roses could be trained flat against the walls.

Quiet and beautiful beasts graze near a fog obscured 17th century chateau and its half timbered neighbour...

An ancient church from the Romanesque era sits quietly in the fog, as it has for many hundreds of years...

  

A short distance along the road a lake lies hidden in the fog...

and a mill cottage is embraced between the millstream and the curving route.

I turn down a narrow lane and reach a branch of the same watercourse and the woods that lay beyond...

A metallic blue kingfisher startles from under the culvert near a giant, old willow but is too quick to catch with my camera...

And in the tree, broken but still living, there is a hollow heart space...

The heart of nature in a water meadow beside a wood where many willows grow.

Some of the trees are old and naturally decaying, as willows so often do, but a great deal of cutting has taken place since the last time I visited this place and freshly downed saplings are all around.

The old and broken trees look ghostly in the fog and nearby

a dark pine forest shuts out what little light there is in this day...

sometimes I have found the cloven tracks of wild pigs and deer in its muddy, twilit paths...

but today I turn back to the road and pastures as the sound of a high speed train drowns the calls of small birds.

The pasture fence is made in part of stunted oak trees, natural bonsai formed from numerous prunings over the years. Among their branches and trunks I seem to see strange humanoid presences...

 

On the way back I pass an inn with a winter desserted terrace of pruned trees...

A fountain drained of water in this icy season...with elaborate interior and ornate spouts that resemble dragonish ducks...

A shelter for vehicles under an ornate terra cotta roof...

And a final willow, this one weeping, behind a farm building...

Thank you for walking with me...