What's going on Diana DeAugustine?

I Am Not Worried by Diana DeAugustine

Art on walls, people eating cheese and crackers, in a sea of tattoos and piercings, there you see These.Things, an exhibition by artistDiana DeAugustine at the Red Crow Studio. Right now, this tattoo studio/art gallery is a serenade of feelings, emotions, and physiology. Walking through, one notices that the paintings on the wall just want to give you a hug and tear you apart. "These.Things. is a series of paintings about love's visual poetry", explains DeAugustine. Warm, inviting, yet complex and vulnerable, "simultaneously affirming the beauty of falling in and out of love", she continues.

The art comes to life on a stage with brilliant lighting and atmosphere that teases and relaxes the beast. Her art takes many forms. Also putting her skills and art on skin as a tattoo artist, "the intent to move fluidly between both mediums to create an interesting dialogue about the body, skin and metaphorical images about ephemeral experiences in life". She elegantly has achieved this. DeAugustine has studied a great deal, MFA at California Institute of the Arts, Tattoo Apprenticeship at Bad Influence Tattoo under Bob Nguyen, and of course her BA in Visual Art Studio at University of California San Diego (UCSD) with Honors.

The urge to describe the art at the Red Crow Studio as tattoo "art on wood" is premature. Instead, it's sophistication, it's sexy, and shows the depths of a true artist. One can see the influences of graffiti, pop, and tattoo art, along with the texture and waves of the wood. The wood has its own personality that would influence any artist with deep contrasting colors of browns, reds, and yellows. One starts to discover a similarity, "I find wood to be my ideal work surface because it feels like skin", DeAugustine says. She will also being curating this space to new artist each month opening during Ray @ Night. What she says about her work and what she wants people to take away, "to be reminded about the puzzling energy involved in loving another person". You can experience her art right now until Sept.10th at the Red Crow Studio, right next to the Rubber Rose. The address is 3812-A Ray St. San Diego, 92104.