Diane Correa de Rempel
Artist Statement “I stood atop the pyramid and knew my destiny.”
As both an artist and a dancer, I created my art in terms of fluidity of movement and intensity
of emotion. I straddle the borders of two noble cultures; one, some thirty centuries old, the
other, just over two centuries. This cultural duality is a reflection of both the enduring
theme of duality in Mexican art, literature, and culture and American culture born of European
legacy; the two cultures exist as one in me and cannot be separated: this is my reality, which
I celebrate. Whatever differences exist among us humans, the essence of our humanity can be
found in emotion and desire. I believe that they transcend time and space and that life and
death are the flip sides of the same coin. I continue to explore these concepts in my work
through the use of a palette influenced by my cultural past, a desire to illustrate the
perpetual motion of line, and the emotion that color evokes.
Biography
Dianne Correa de Rempel was influenced at an early age by art and dance. Her first art
instructor was the celebrated Melanie Taylor Kent. Diane has trained in Mexican folklorico
dancing, flamenco, ballet, Hawaiian hula, and Japanese folk dancing. She has studied several
languages including Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, and Hawaiian. Diane has been influenced
by the art of many cultures but focuses primarily on her Mexican heritage through well
researched images of Aztecs deities and her twenty-five plus interest in Dia de los Muertos.
She is best known for her innovative interpretation of Jose Guadalupe Posada’s La Calavera
Catrina.
Diane studied Mesoamerican art at her alma mater, Occidental College. She continued to
pursue an interest in art history during her six years working at the Getty Art Research
Institute (GRI). Diane also studied in the Multimedia Program at Los Angeles Mission College
where her digital artwork was published in the prospective student recruitment brochure. Her
drawings and paintings were exhibited at Los Angeles County Century Gallery, where she was
invited to be a guest curator; in a solo a show at Occidental College; at ZimArt Gallery in Los
Angeles; and at California State University at Northridge where she was also invited to lecture
on “Art and the Chicano Child.”
Locally, she was in a solo show at the House of Brews coffeehouse in San Fernando and in a
group show for the opening of Tia Chucha’s Café Cultural in Sylmar. In, addition, she has
exhibited at a number of San Fernando Valley community festivals and events. Diane’s art
comments have been featured in Los Angeles Times, the Daily News, and the San Fernando Sun.