Among the many artists whom I have interviewed over the years, Adrienne Diner has always stood out in my memory for the materials she works with. What Adrienne has always been drawn to as her preferred medium has been material that she can physically manipulate.
In an interview I did with her in 1985, in what may be described as her fabric period, she noted that she enjoyed working with fabrics because, she said, working with silk and other fabric dyes framed or sewn from quilted hangings or wearables allowed her to produce a form of sculpture that was both colourful and functional. At the time, she was creating in her south Winnipeg studio, hangings, bedspreads, table runners, placemats, and louvered blinds. While most of her work back then was for private residences and commercial clients, she was also being exhibited in galleries across Canada as well as a few in the U.S.
I last interviewed Adrienne in 1993. She talked about how, throughout the quilting process, the concept evolved to the point that the finished piece may have been completely different from what was originally envisioned.
Last month, I met with Adrienne for the first time in 30 years to find out what she has been up to since our last meeting. The Winnipeg-born artist studied in the 1970s at the University of Denver – she graduated from there with a master’s degree in Ceramics – and in England where she also worked on her MFA degree.
She has continued to evolve as an artist. In the mid-1990s, she reports, she began designing rugs. “I connected with different friends in the carpet business,” she recounts. “We began working together. We did some trade shows and began importing hand-made rugs of Tibetan wool being produced by an artisan in Nepal.”
In 2000, Adrienne and her lifelong partner, Harvey Wasiuta, moved to Ottawa after Harvey was hired to work for the Federal Government in a senior capacity. It was in the nation’s capital where Adrienne began for the first time working with glass.
“Harvey and I are long-time bridge players,” she says. “We made friends in Ottawa through the bridge. One of the people we met was a glass artist. She invited me to her studio and taught me how to work with glass and let me use her kiln. I really enjoyed being able to fuse glass, manipulate the shape and add different colours and metallics.
“For me, the colour story I am able to tell through my work is most important.”
In 2014, Harvey and Adrienne moved back to Winnipeg. Since their return, Adrienne has largely restricted her art to pursuing projects for her own enjoyment. For the cupboards in their condo, she mixed up nine gallons of a special imported metallic paint. She took it to a millwork company where she was allowed to test the paint. She then proceeded to spray paint the cupboards a copper colour.
“It was incredible,” she says. “I use a lot of copper in most of my art pieces.”
Also at the condo, Adrienne has been able to express her artistry through floral arrangement art installations on her balcony augmented by rocks and sand she has collected both locally and during a stay in Florida.
Where she continues to do her major work, however, is at the couple’s cottage at Winnipeg Beach. “I am working on a long-term project – an environmental art installation which, I am estimating will have taken me seven years when I complete it,” she reports.
For the project, Adrienne has collected five panels, each measuring 40 inches by 48 inches, made of galvanized metal. She is painting them to mirror the trees and other natural elements around the cottage.
“When I am finished, I am going to mount the panels on wooden poles and all will be lined up to reveal one continuous scene,” she explains. “And, because I don’t want to risk the panels being toppled by a particularly strong wind, I will have three panels, each cut in three with spaces between the sections of each panel.
“The result will be nine continuous images mounted on poles echoing colours and images reflective of a fall landscape.
“This will be a permanent art piece in the woods,” she notes.
While at the beach, she is also busy collecting burl wood and slices of wood for future environmental art projects.
While Adrienne is primarily making art for herself these days, she looks back with immense satisfaction at all that she has accomplished over a lifetime as an artist and continues to cherish the friendship of many of the clients whom she has worked with over the years.
