Diane O'Leary facts for kids

Diane O’Leary (1939–2013) was a talented artist. She was part Irish and part Comanche Native American. She created many different kinds of art. Diane used her art to speak up for fairness and respect for people who were treated unfairly, like Native Americans and women. She also cared deeply about the environment.

She was famous for her art showing Native American women. Diane combined her knowledge from science with her artistic skills. This helped her create art that was both abstract and very accurate. Later in her career, she made a series of collages. These collages showed how important it was to protect the environment of Tillamook Bay in Oregon.

Early Life and Education

Diane O’Leary was born in Waco, Texas. Her father was Irish, and her mother was Comanche. She grew up during the Great Depression. This was a time when money was scarce. This experience taught her to be clever and use whatever materials she could find. These skills became very important in her art later on. She became known around the world for her weaving, quilting, and printmaking.

As a child, Diane was a piano prodigy, meaning she was incredibly talented at a young age. She studied many subjects in college, including old literature, nursing, and archaeology. She went to several universities, like Texas Christian University, Harvard University, and Stanford University. Even though she never went to art school, she found ways to mix her love for art into her studies. For example, when she was a nurse, she became a medical artist. She would draw what she saw during surgeries. She even created new tools to make medical procedures better. She also did research on the environment of Oregon's Tillamook Bay. This research helped create a plan for Congress to protect important wetlands.

Her Amazing Art Work

Diane O’Leary's research on Tillamook Bay inspired her art. She created a series of collages called The Living Waters of Tillamook Bay. These artworks celebrated the animals and plants living in the Bay. Congress accepted her plan to protect the Bay. Her collage series then became a special exhibit at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in 2005. For this project, she used an old Japanese printing method called Gyotaku. This technique involves making prints directly from fish. To learn more about it, she even learned Japanese so she could talk to Japanese Gyotaku artists herself!

O’Leary's art style was often abstract, meaning it didn't always look exactly like real life. But she always made sure her subjects had the right shapes and proportions. She mixed her scientific knowledge with her artistic skills. She learned a lot from other artists. She studied with Dick West, a famous art teacher at Bacone College. She also learned from professional artists in Santa Fe, New Mexico, like Emil Bisttram and Linton Kistler. They taught her more about painting and printmaking.

Diane was also influenced by famous artists like Georgia O'Keeffe, which showed in her plant-themed artworks. Other artists like Helen Frankenthaler and Louise Nevelson inspired the modern look of her art. Diane took all these influences and added her own unique style. She made sure her own cultural background was part of her art. She is most famous for her studies of Native American women. She showed them in their historical settings but in her own new and exciting way. Her art always spoke up for fairness and respect for Native Americans, women, and the environment.

Major Accomplishments

Diane O’Leary's art has been shown all over the world. You can find her pieces in public art galleries and private collections. Her work is part of many collections across the United States. This includes the National Estuary Program in Washington D.C. Her art has even been used in television shows and movies!

Featured In

• "Earth Song, Moon Dreams: Paintings by American Indian Women," by Patricia Janis Broder
• Arizona Highways (magazine), September 1972
• Organ Art Beat, www.opb.org
• "Contemporary Southwest Jewelry," by Diana Pardue, Heard Museum
• "American Indian Crafts and Culture," Volume 7 no.3, March 1973
• The Scottsdale Daily Progress, March 1975
• The Indian Trader, July 1978

Public Collections

• Berne Museum, Berne, Switzerland
• Oregon Coast Aquarium, Newport, Oregon
• Denver Art Museum, Colorado
• Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York
• Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona
• Museum of American Indian, Heye Foundation in New York
• Mitchell Indian Museum, Kendall College, Evanston, Illinois
• Millicent Rogers Foundation Museum, Taos, New Mexico
• Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma
• Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Stanford University, California
• Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, Santa Fe, New Mexico