"Leaf Fall", 2020, Large Mixed-Media Gray and Multi-Color Collage, by Diane Love

"Leaf Fall," 2020 is a large mixed-media collage on heavy Arches paper, feels map like in its arrangement of shapes, floating in peach, persimmon and chartreuse that abut dark masses of gray. These forms are reinforced by irregular shapes of paper applied in a random arrangement. Diane says of this collage: "Instead of working from large shapes and progressing to more detailed forms, I reversed the process and commenced by staining the paper with a filigree of lines made with a beet water stain that fan out in all directions. Then I applied a thin layer of a taupe colored wash, not obscuring the detail but creating a cohesive whole. Finally I added fragments of red and orange paper to reinforce the beet color and add textural variety.

Diane has always felt that art has been her lifelong companion providing her with the freedom to express herself with a multitude of mediums and materials.
For nearly two decades Diane Love's eponymous shop on Madison Avenue in Manhattan embraced the Scope of her creativity where she sold her home accessory and fashion creations which are still collected today. She soon established herself as a style icon in her own right with A-list tastemakers such as Jackie Onassis, Estée Lauder, Albert Hadley, Sister Parish, Mario Buatta and Valentino. Major department stores and companies such as Mikasa, Trifari and Saks Fifth Avenue licensed her wide ranging lifestyle and fashion products to distribute and Bloomingdale's housed its own Diane Love boutique. During the 1970s, Diane's spectacular floral arrangements caught the eye of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York City Opera who both hired her as a flower consultant while Macmillan, Inc, published her first book, "Flowers Are Fabulous For Decorating."

After Diane closed her shop in 1986 to pursue her passion in Fine art, she has had 11 solo exhibitions of her paintings and photographs, and is currently represented by a prestigious gallery in New York`. She authored, "YES/NO DESIGN" published by Rizzoli, New York and by Flammarion, in Paris.

In her numerous pursuits, Fine art, photography, writing, fashion, flower arranging, acting, or as a cabaret singer, Diane Love is best described as a Renaissance woman.