THE DAILINESS OF LIFE
SEAscapes
By Dennis Sheehy
June 2007
Dianne Holcomb lives with her husband, Marc Swan, in “The Crow’s Nest.” That is the affectionate term they have given their third-floor condo on the Hill, which affords them a view of the sun rising over Casco Bay and its gradual settling into darkness. It is as if they were indeed, crows in a nest, watching the comings and goings of boats, birds, people and other animals, engaged in “the dailiness of life,” a term, Dianne says, used by Tilly Olsen (a feminist writer who died at 94 this past winter). Dianne graduated from Wheaton College in 1984, with a Bachelor’s degree is in American Civilization, with a concentration in Contemporary American Women Poets.
On the wall hangs a painting by Dianne of two crows, sitting atop a house with trees and the sky in the distance. They are both looking in the same direction at something the viewer cannot see. Dianne says the crows are “about my relationship with Marc. It’s the two of us, looking at the water, it’s nice, early morning…life is good.”
The painting was exhibited last summer at Three Fish Gallery, on Cumberland Ave. in Portland. “It is,” Dianne continues, “a reflection of being settled at this point in my life. My poetry played with words the way I play with color and form in my paintings. But it was darker. There is less edge in my life now. Marc and I love films and we recently saw “Red Road.” It’s very sad film. I ‘m glad I don’t feel great sadness in my life anymore.”
She holds up a collage painting that shows actual cut out photos of individual members of her family in earlier years. They are separate, focused in different directions, with the beach providing a background. Various words and phrases have been typed and cut into the work. “Not drowning,” says one of them. The title of the piece is “Southern Family.”
Dianne points to another wall piece she has been working on and says that one is called “My Brother’s Heart.” She explained that her brother had a quadruple bypass and a defibulator installed, with life threatening complications. The painting is Dianne’s response to the possibility that he would die. But the heart problem is multifaceted. It is partly the result of excesses of indulgence, the excesses themselves muting the physical and emotional responses of the heart.
Dianne says it is a portrait of the confusion and complexity of her relationship with her brother. It is 3-dimensional, “embellished,” Dianne says. There is a cloaked stone with strands of fiber hanging here and there; a tiny beaded American flag is in the center. It has a chaotic feel to it and engages one’s curiosity while at the same time, makes one want to look away.
But Dianne has used her art to look squarely at the aspects of her youth and life that unsettle the present. It is cathartic. It is healing. “Where does the energy go?” she asks. “This moves it beyond something uncomfortable; it helps to release it.” Releasing the uncomfortable has created room for the enthusiastic energy she quietly exudes.
For about 5 years, Dianne painted pears and has some of her work hanging in their condo. They are very sensual and in some cases, suggestive of the pleasingly rounded feminine derriere. “The pears represent people -- they are like people to me and continue that same theme of exploring the “dailiness of life.” Her favorite painting is of four large pears in exhausted repose on a tabletop. She calls it “Friends for Dinner”.
There is playful fecundity in Dianne’s work and attitude. She points to two paintings she did of her daughter when she was pregnant. They have a modernist feel. The woman is modestly clothed but the bare belly is clearly great with child. The color and composition and the handling of the theme is a celebration of life itself.
When did this creative impulse, this creative ideal, first appear? “At age 4 or 5, I had a rich fantasy life. I loved fairy tales, other worlds, and wanted to write stories, draw pictures and make up plays.” She laughs. “I made up plays and charged kids to watch.”
What was her original dream? “I wanted to be a psychologist and a writer.” She was driven by the practical reality of being a single parent and worked a variety of jobs to support her daughter: catering, cleaning houses, teaching parenting, teaching yoga, and interior design. Later, she became the Director of Residential Services, “24/7,” for a statewide mental health agency. “There was a lot of humility in that.” She worked with people who had very difficult challenges and she had to get “really creative to get people to do things.”
Her last job on Cape Cod, before moving to Portland, was Director of the Cape Cod Neighborhood Support Coalition, a child and family advocacy program. Currently, she is Executive Director of Partners in Ending Hunger (www.endhungernow.org). It is a job she loves and is dedicated to.
Though she did not obtain a degree in Psychology, Dianne has certainly lived her dream and gone well beyond. She has found a way to work with people that empowers instead of creating dependency. She continues to write poetry, along with painting. Perhaps most of all, she has found a simple joy in her life, in her relationships, in her creativity.
Dianne is a member of SEA and you can see her work or contact her at her SEA members page.
Dennis Sheehy is a regular contributor to the Observer and can be contacted at gnomes@maine.rr.com.