Diane Durant

Mental Pictures addresses notions of readership, storytelling, and the relationship between the visual and verbal, combining the elements of information and representation common in a gallery setting—from text-based gelatin silver contact prints and vinyl vignettes to descriptive wall labels and narrative statements—to develop new plot lines, characters, settings, and shared literary experiences. Language dominates the space as the verbal, now written, is made visual and unfolds as unique pictures in the mind of each viewer who acts as both image-maker and storyteller. Since I make art about what I know (and how I was raised), regional themes such as Texas weather (tornadoes), southern cooking (butter), family past times (fishing), and rattlesnakes (respect) have a ubiquitous narrative presence as always.