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Gallery Volunteer Spotlight

May '07- Daryn Lane

Daryn Lane has been the Gallery's student volunteer this year. In June 2007 she will be graduating from Northwood High School. She recently participated in the May show at the Gallery featuring Chatham County high school students (more about the show). The following is her artist's statement:

"I have been interested in art since I was little. I used to draw nature scenes and horses for my parents and I always liked going to the art classes when I was in elementary school. At camps that I went to I always enjoyed doing the arts and crafts activities and also made clay bowls, coil pots, and so on. These were my first dabblings in art. My parents and I always used to go camping at Jordan Lake with family friends including friends that were my age that I had known since I was born. We would play by the lake shore, pretending that we were Native Americans and using the red clay from the lake to make clay pots, vases, and plates on top of logs and then letting them bake there in the sun.

My friends that made red clay pots with me then and as I continued to grow up were always good at drawing, especially horses. Later on my friends and I would make elaborate and detailed floor plans for mansions complete with trains that we could ride on to go from one side of the mansion to the other and of course skylights and massive windows in our own bedrooms so that we could draw and paint what was outside. We also designed outrageous clothing that we drew over paper doll models. What started out as just a few of my friends and I drawing clothes expanded to almost all of my friends and I drawing them whenever they came over to my house.

I always admired my friends, especially a few of my close friends for their artistic talents. I currently admire Salvador Dali's painting and outrageous ideas, M. C. Escher's tessellations and Metamorphose as well as the contemporary artist Siglinda Scarpa and her curvy flowing pottery and sculptures and photographer Jeff Wall. I also enjoy studying graffiti art in part because of the statements they project and their universality. As I was painting my first painting, "Reflections," at home and staying up entire nights I found that I achieved a certain placidity and calmness while painting and doing artwork in general. I could allow myself to think about some other things while doing my art but at the same time continue to be immersed in another world where i was allowed to think very creatively and really however I wanted to and then execute these thoughts physically on paper or canvas with my own hands. In this way I really feel like there is a lot of me in the art that I do.

My artwork is not always about the same thing. My artwork has been about my own emotions but also issues that are important to me. I do find that in all of my work I try to make the viewer think a lot about the piece and interpret it and figure it out for themselves. Although I always have my own thoughts about what I believe the piece means and it's purpose, I really love to hear other's reactions. I make the viewer work hard to uncover the realities and the meaning hidden in the work often because of the seemingly minute details. In this was I hope to create pieces that reach out towards many people or that a people who do not seem to be connected to each other can feel a connection with.

I hope that I can continue with this goal in future pieces that I create."