Statement
I create drawings and prints to navigate my experience as a first-generation American and Azorean-Portuguese immigrant. My most recent work investigates this dual identity as a complex intersection of an Old World or hard life and a terrifying, desperate New World, or harsh life—within a visual paradigm of forced migration, generational trauma, and socio-economic critique.
My recent work features what started as an investigation of printing techniques outside of the traditional realm of printmaking—not having access to a press during the pandemic —that led me to draw from close observation of two volcanic rocks picked up from a remote beach, near my family’s ancestral home, on the island of St. Michael in the Azores. One drawing led to others, trace monotypes and drypoint prints that explored overlapping themes around personal experience, family history, and cultural heritage.
From these rock-based drawings and prints to evolving art practice, I discovered a play between representation and abstraction as objects, figures, and landscapes that engage in a repetition of mark-making—finding a critical detail that can be repeated in an attempt to heal from the confines of the paper.
Inherent in this healing process of collecting, observing, and drawing is a radical and creative act of liberation. With my art, I aim to change the immigrant and first-generation narrative from disempowered to empowered, casting a light on what’s sad and beautiful about the process of assimilation and acculturation.
Contact
About
Diane Machado was born and raised in the Azorean-Portuguese immigrant enclaves of Cambridge and Somerville, Massachusetts. She moved to New Hampshire as a teenager and graduated from the University of New Hampshire in Durham with a BFA in Drawing and Printmaking.
She led social and economic justice campaigns and arts programming for local and national organizations early in her career. She later studied graphic design at Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. She built a robust client roster as an independent designer and creative director for various organizations in the arts, higher education, environment, philanthropy, and business sector. As Design Director at Harvard University, she received an Award of Excellence from The University & College Designers Association (UCDA) for her historical capital campaign designs. Her design projects are held in the Harvard University Archives.
She returned to printmaking and drawing to focus on expanding her art practice in mixed media and green printing techniques in 2017. She received a Local Cultural Council (LCC) grant from the Somerville Arts Council in 2021. She has exhibited in Somerville and, most recently, at the Sanford Gallery in Florence, Massachusetts, in 2022.
She is a member of Zea Mays Printmaking in Florence and Shepherd Maudsleigh Studio in Newton, Massachusetts. She will be a prospective MFA candidate in the fall of 2023.