Hannah Diament-Talmadge - April 2011

Anyone who has ever been to public schoolhas probably made a diorama at some point. The teacher gives you shoe-box, some Popsicle sticks, few cotton balls and, presto, you have Washington crossing the Delaware. Or a scene out of Little Women. Or life in the Jurassic age. For me it started in fourth grade, when I made my first diorama about farm life in the Midwest; little trees, a barn, cows and chickens were fixed forever inside that shoe-box with a prodigious helping of glue.

A shadowbox is pretty much a diorama inside a frame that can be mounted on a wall, a miniature world in 3D. My shadowboxes feature a specific artist. A picture of the artist serves as the focal point. Surrounding the artist are several trinkets that depict the artist's style and medium. Hunting for the knickknacks is my idea of a good time.

From my depiction of Andy Warhol's pop art to Georgia O'Keeffe's landscapes, each shadowbox tells a different story in miniature. In my display of Andy Warhol's style I used several trinkets. One was a disco ball to show the crowd and influences he had meeting people at Studio 54, a trendy place in Manhattan in the 80's. The picture of soup cans, Marilyn Monroe, and Coke bottles were familiar topics to depict Pop Art. In contrast to Warhol, I chose Georgia O'Keeffe, who featured different landscapes in her work, from the desert, to the city, to the ocean and the prairie where she was raised. She was especially known for her large canvasses of flowers.

My name is Hannah Diament-Talmadge. I live with my husband Joseph, our daughter Sarah, and our cat, Sebastain. I am presently retired from teaching for 30 years. As much as possible I tried to incorporate my art or song into my curriculum. Now in my retirement, I'm trying to make art a central focus of my life.