Diane McLeod, a 24-year resident of Seal Beach, was recently selected as one of the artists to be featured in “We Got This: Art in the time of the Pandemic,” a pandemic-related exhibition at the Long Beach Airport.
McLeod was one of 19 women out of 135 women applicants to be selected for the exhibit.
“We Got This” reflects uplifting and hopeful messages related to the COVID-19 pandemic by expressing hope, shared community, respect for frontline workers and an acknowledgement of the challenges ahead. Focus on women artists is part of Arts Council For Long Beach’s work with Suffrage 100 commemorating the centennial of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. The “We Got This” artworks were digitally enlarged and installed on construction barricades along outdoor-accessible areas of the airport. Artists received a $500 honorarium. McLeod’s original artwork is a monotype titled “Corona Transformed” and shows the lost lives and businesses turning into new growth and ultimately flowers of renewed, transformed life.
“A Monotype is an atypical form of a print because it’s not reproducible but one of a kind,” McLeod wrote.
“It’s made from a surface such as acrylic by painting on that surface, laying a piece of paper on it and either running it through a press or by hand rubbing it from behind. Then, the artist picks up the printed image and more painting can be done on the acrylic and the same paper laid on it again. Can be repeated as often as desired,” McLeod wrote.
“Yes, I create other forms of prints too and these are reproducible , as many as wanted can be printed from the same surface; intaglios—etchings made from metal surface—lithographs from a stone surface and wood block prints,” McLeod wrote.
“I also do paintings but am mainly a Printmaker,” McLeod wrote.
The Long Beach Airport exhibition will remain up for at least six months. An online version of the exhibit is also available.
McLeod recently received a different honor when she was awarded a CA Relief Grant for non-profit art organizations affected by the pandemic. She was awarded a $5,000 grant as president of the Los Angeles Printmaking Society Foundation. The Foundation is the granting branch of the larger organization, LAPS. The monies will be used to help fund promising student printmakers enrolled in printmaking programs at institutions of higher learning.
