Weather

I measure the quality of my life by the nighttime temperature. Maybe weather is boring to some people, but it's not boring here. It's one of the defining factors of life. The heat, the rain. We have two seasons. Rainy and dry. It's hot all year round. And most people, amazingly, don't have air conditioners.

The cool temperature (nighttime) in early October, was 82 degrees fahrenheit before it finally started to cool off. We only know this because we bought an indoor/outdoor thermometer in July when we were in the U. S. People here don't seem to care about these types of measurements, and in 2 1/2 years, I haven't been able to get true temperature readings, until now. The newspaper says exactly the same temp., day and night, all year long. Luckily, Rogelio and I decided to put an air conditioner in our bedroom in August. I honestly don't know how we dealt with the heat last year, or the year before. It didn't seem this hot.

The cool temp. was 69 last night. The rain from the tail of this hurricane helped our cooling process. So, we begin my favorite time of the year. It's absolutely delicious. In November it will still be green. The sunflowers have started to bloom and different varieties will be blooming most of the winter until the rains start again in June. The countryside will turn yellow, and a little later, white. In February, the Rosa Morada and Prima Vera trees will bloom with bright yellow and dusty light pink. These are big trees and at the height of the bloom, will be giant puff balls of color, no leaves yet.

But, what I enjoy most, will be the weather. Cool enough to sleep well at night, and hot during the days. Blue skies. Yay, here we go!

Diane working on the bass relief.

Three Week Old

2004--10"x8"x4"--Cast Bronze

Three Week Old

2004--10"x8"x4"--Cast Bronze

in my studio

November 2007

Street Dog Detail

Original Wax-In Progress

Ship of Fools

2006--15"x13"x10"--Cast Bronze

Ship of Fools Detail

2006--15"x13"x10"--Cast Bronze

Ship of Fools Detail

2006--15"x13"x10"--Cast Bronze

Family

2000--20"x6"x6"--Ceramic

Family

2000--20"x6"x6"--Ceramic

Family Detail

2000--20"x6"x6"--Ceramic

Mask

2000--16"x6"x5"--Ceramic and Wax

Mask

2000--16"x6"x5"--Ceramic and Wax

Vanity I

1997--13"x7"x6"--Cast Bronze

Vanity I

1997--13"x7"x6"--Cast Bronze

Vanity I

1997--13"x7"x6"--Cast Bronze

Yoshio

1998--8"x4"x4"--Cast Bronze

Yoshio

1998--8"x4"x4"--Cast Bronze

Yoshio

1998--8"x4"x4"--Cast Bronze

Where is Mama Going?

1997--20"x14"x18"--Cast Bronze

Where is Mama Going?

1997--20"x14"x18"--Cast Bronze

Where is Mama Going?

1997--20"x14"x18"--Cast Bronze

Where is Mama Going?

1997--20"x14"x18"--Cast Bronze

Sacrifice I

1994--10"x2"x3"--Cast Bronze

Sacrifice I

1994--10"x2"x3"--Cast Bronze

Sacrifice I

1994--10"x2"x3"--Cast Bronze

Reviews

CAC reaches out for relevant material

by Michelle French

The works of Bay Area artists Diane van der Zanden and Lynn Tomaszewski are on display through March at the Chico Art Center's Depot Gallery.

van der Zanden's figurative sculptures with their rough surfaces range in technique from expressionistic to semi-abstract.  Often, the elongated figures with their exaggerated genitals remind the viewer of African sculpture.  There are eight of van der Zanden's sculptures on display, five of which comprise the series, "His Babymaker I-IV."  "His Babymaker..." explores the age-old inequality between men and women and the oppression of women.  "His Babymaker I" a glass and ceramic sculpture, shows a nude woman standing on a globe with strings of clear glass and a myriad of tiny ceramic babies falling from her uterus onto the round shape beneath her feet.  The woman, whose expression is one of strained exhaustion, raises her arms to shoulder level.  Her hands, raised slightly above her head, are turned palms up.  On her head a naked man crouches, his genitalia prominently displayed, while he clutches at her hands for support.  The man's expression is calm and serene.

"His Babymaker II " is a large single figure of a nude woman with a dark red pot on her head.  She is thin, careworn, melancholy, drooping beneath her double burden--the pot she is carrying and her visible pregnancy.  "Woman with Asphalt Heart" is the portrait of an aged woman with a tired face and an emaciated body.  Her form rises from a rough, oblong block and she balances herself on her withered arms with her large hands splayed on either side of her waist.  The "asphalt heart" of the title is an irregular blob that protrudes above her left breast.  You're bound to have almost a visceral reaction to van der Zanden's powerful images.  They shimmer with a fine, ironic, barely controlled anger.  Her technique is an interesting blend of elegance and rawness.  With the work of Diane van der Zanden and Lynn Tomaszewski the CAC seems to be reaching out for new, more exciting, and more relevant material in their shows.

Chico Enterprise-Record/Sunday, February 20, 1994

Reviews

On The Walls

by Elizabeth Kieszkowski

Chico Art Center--The CAC further proves its mettle with this exhibition of tough-minded, finely wrought figurative sculpture by Diane van der Zanden (themed "His Babymaker") and eye-pleasing, ambiguous large-scale "paintings" by Lynn Tomaszewski, of copper patina and organic materials.  Through Mar. 27.  Orange and Fourth Streets.  895-8726. 

Chico News & Review  February 17, 1994

Reviews

MATRIX GALLERY:  "INTERNATIONAL '93".

This show of primarily female artists is too numerous and variegated to describe here.  But from afar we can tell you this:  Berkeley-based figurative sculptress Diane van der Zanden is a hit.  Her point-blank commentary on sex roles (titled "His Babymaker") deservedly took top honors.  Reception June 12, 7-9pm.  1725 I St.  441-4818.  Through July 2.

ART VIEW, June 1993

Babymaker II

1992--85"x22"x16"

Sorry for the odd color changes in the photgraphs of this sculpture. Part of it is becuase I painted it several times, and part of it is the photograph.

Babymaker II Detail

1992--85"x22"x16"--Ceramic

Babymaker II Detail

1992--85"x22"x16"--Ceramic

Babymaker III

1992--65"x29"x14"

Babymaker III Detail

1992--65"x29"x14"

Babymaker III Detail

1992--65"x29"x14"

1987-1991

I graduated from the University of Oregon in 1987 and moved into a warehouse in the industrial/neighborhood area of West Oakland. A blighted, impoverished area that had been separated from the rest of Oakland by the elevated Cypress Street Viaduct of the 880 Nimitz Parkway Freeway. For two years, I lived two blocks from that structure, where it was normal to see a man walking the street with a wad of money in his hand and to hear gunshots, day or night.

I didn't do much in those two years. I was pretty scared, returning from the somewhat idyllic town of Eugene, Oregon where I rode my bike day and night. I finally decided to take some classes at Laney College and started a prolific period in my sculpture. I moved in 1999, and changed to an inexpensive studio in the Potter's Guild building in West Berkeley. I had access to three large kilns and created the larger sculptures, and experimented with firing glass in or on clay. The agreement was that I had to entirely move out twice a year to allow the landlord to sell her pottery.

I was being influenced by my surroundings and by the politics of the time when there was a huge attack on women's rights. And by California which is so rich and people seem to lose their souls there.

In West Oakland, I got very interested in Egyptian Mummies and The Bog People. I enjoyed studying the science and the aesthetics of the forms. I created many emaciated figures which, to me, reflected the high consumption that didn't provide tangible nourishment. Around that time, I had some sculpture at the Rosecrutian Egyptian Museum in San Jose.

I was invited to show my work in Sacramento and created the sculpture "Flowers for the Dead" specifically for a show called 3 Bad A's-Aids, Armament and Aparthied. I thought of it as a tombstone and a cynical offering to those who had died as a result of these political problems.

"Pressure" or "Gun in My Head" came from a converstion with a friend where he kept saying over and over, "I feel like I have a gun in my head. I'm so stressed out." Very simple idea, but it ended up in The Lite Rail Gallery in Sacramento during a fundraiser for Dianne Feinstein. Without thinking, asking or knowing what it was about, she had it moved to a storage room in the back of the gallery.

I also created "Capital Man" as an hommage to those who socialize for personal profit. I love trying these types of huge experiments, not knowing what would happen. I packed his empty eye with clay dollar signs and pieces of green beer bottle glass. I fired very slowly and the glass dripped down carrying the dollar signs. Two of them ended up on the jacket. Most fell onto the kiln shelf, but I was extrememly happy with my results.

Capiital Man

1991--29"x11"x9"--Ceramic and Green Bottle Glass

Capital Man Detail

1991--29"x11"x9"--Ceramic and Green Bottle Glass

Capital Man With Dollar

1991--29"x11"x9"--Ceramic and Green Bottle Glass

Old Woman

1991--16"x6"x5"--Ceramic

Old Woman Detail

1991--16"x6"x5"--Ceramic

Pressure

1991--22"x9"x9"--Ceramic

Pressure

1991--22"x9"x9"--Ceramic

Flowers for the Dead

1991--30"x9"x7"--Ceramic and Dry Flowers

Flowers for the Dead

1991--30"x9"x7"--Ceramic and Dry Flowers

Reviews

Alaskan tops field in Lode sculpture show

...Two of the more unusual combinations came from Robin Dintiman of Oakland and Diane van der Zanden of Berkeley.

van der Zanden's "Woman with Asphalt Heart" is a gaunt figure who resembles victims of Nazi concentration camps: head shaved, shoulders and ribs and hips little more than skin and bones, lips curved in plaintive speech.  The figure was executed in clay, but a jagged outcrop of asphalt bursts from her left breast.

Modesto Bee

Sunday, June 13, 1993

Flowers for the Dead

1991--30"x9"x7"--Ceramic and Dry Flowers

Self Portrait

1988--11"x5"x5"--Ceramic

Masquerade

1988--2"x2"x2"--Ceramic

Operation

1991--24"x18"

My Dream

1991--24"x18"

Ghost

1991--24"x18"

Crows

1991--24"x28"

Ghost Driver

1991--24"x18"