Artist Statement

by Alaska Artist Dianne Roberson Hendrix

Professionally known as Dianne Roberson Hendrix, I have used my maiden name Roberson combined with my married name Hendrix since 1965. I have painted and photographed artistic native people throughout North, South, and Central America and traveled most of this planet. As a young artist and later as a professional artist, I journeyed every summer to the mountains where I sketched native artists expressing their creativity through weaving, carving, and dancing. It was this tradition of recording their lives with art that bonded me to the Cherokee Indians. My Arctic Life Series of Alaska is a continuation of these experiences, and a hope to create lasting visual images of Native American people and their traditions.

Through the years, my life has taken me on many journeys far from my roots. I was drawn to Alaska, as if a magnet was pulling me back to nature. I didn’t choose to come here. I simply could not stay away. My Northern Lights Series was born in the cold dark night surrounded by silence near the top of the world. I saw magnetic pulses of light. An intense emotion encompassed me and I understood why our ancestors were so awed, even frightened, by the luminous dances of the Northern Lights. I have been compelled to record this unending series in many veins and under many different influences since. My interpretation of the Aurora Borealis includes the human figure or wildlife to give a definition of scale as well as to celebrate the joyous Alaskan spirit.

My Digital Art Series combines digital photography and digital painting. Using a number of software programs, I “paint” a digital interpretation or impression of my digital photographic composite images. By wielding software tools like brushes on pixels instead of paint, my computer allows me to change the scale, transparency, color, brightness and contrast of the parts and of the whole. It allows me to experiment endlessly, save variations and make comparisons which I could never do with traditional media. I have always been fascinated with the intersection of art and technology.

The daily visual enjoyments surrounding me in this beautiful state of Alaska give me the emotional satisfaction that is necessary for me to paint original art in my studio and photograph nature throughout the great Alaskan wilderness. Sharing this joy of Alaska with the public keeps me traveling through out Alaska showing my paintings, photography, and digital art at museums, businesses, and schools. Alaskan Art by Alaskan Artist records today’s life for history. My aim as an artist is to create pulsating, luminous surfaces that emanate a mystic light and give my deepest insight into the experience of life and nature.

Please enjoy the photography and artwork of Dianne Roberson Hendrix throughout this issue of The Smoking Poet.