Interview: Diana Jean Puglisi
Born in Brooklyn, NY, Diana Jean Puglisi is an interdisciplinary artist and educator. Through sculpture, textiles and drawing, Puglisi transforms and recontextualizes objects associated with women’s work, such as thimbles, sewing pins, lint rollers, dresses and pincushions, to try to understand it thoroughly and in a context different from its original. She creates scenarios between forms and materials that reflect parallel narratives to our lived experience while questioning the way arrangement and interaction can anthropomorphize them. Puglisi graduated with an MFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design and a BFA from William Paterson University in NJ. In 2017, she received a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Individual Fellowship in Sculpture. She has been an artist-in-residence at Vermont Studio Center, Big Red & Shiny, Gallery 263, and Virginia Commonwealth University. Her work has been exhibited at a variety of galleries including University of Arizona Joseph Gross Gallery (Tucson, AZ), Wavelength Space (Chattanooga, TN), William Paterson University Galleries (Wayne, NJ), SOIL Gallery (Seattle, WA), Alfa Gallery (Miami, FL), subSamson (Boston, MA), and Kathryn Schultz Gallery (Cambridge, MA).
One to another, on another, in another, Velvet, Steel, Resin Casted Thimbles, Tulle, Seams, Pins, Thread, Seams on Interfacing Crochet Pedestal with Interior Polyfil and Industrial Felt Stuffing, 39.5” x 30” x 33”, 2022
PP: Walk us through a typical day in your studio or generally through your process to make new work.
DJP: As a new parent, I am trying to find ways to stay in my studio without physically needing to be in my studio. This is because I have a full-time job and a small child, which means these days it's not as easy as waking up, making coffee, and going to my basement studio to make art.
Once I get downstairs, I usually pause and take a moment to look around. I’ve always found that after looking around, I tend to begin to clean up, and for me this ritual sparks new ideas and conversations between my materials.
A new work is typically started with an idea for a form I imagined or sketched, or sometimes they are informed by poetry that I’ve read or wrote. I create material studies and color tests. Most recently I have been making models to help me to think through and realize larger scale works. I work intuitively for the most part, discovering new techniques through my process.
Thimble Couple: Twisted Appendages with Locks, Resin Casted Thimbles, Acrylic, Gold Leaf, Thread, Interfacing Fabric and Sewing Pins, 4” x 6” x 4”, 2020
Vote (Thimble Congregations), iPad Drawing Archival Inkjet Print, 12" x 16", 2020
PP: What motivates you to make art?
DJP: My deep passion for feminism and holding up traditions from my matriarchal lineage drive the concepts of my work and are my core motivation. Art also continually pushes me to learn something new, to figure out a problem, to think about something unconventionally, and to be silly and serious all at once. It keeps me on my toes, and no matter what I make, the more I look at it, the more I see. It’s this cycle that feels profoundly rewarding and motivating.
PP: What is one goal you are aiming to achieve this year for your art practice?
DJP: My goal is to have a solo-exhibition on the books by the end of 2024. I am setting a goal to create 10-15 new works as part of a new series. I’m still making smaller works, which always happen in tandem. In 2024, I am going to push myself to draw every day, whether it be in my sketchbook, on an iPad or in 3D.
Pincushion V: Spew, Velvet, Thread, Industrial Felt, Tulle, Dressmaker Pins, Interfacing Fabric, Acrylic Paint, 4" x 11" x 3.25", 2021
Pincushion II: Lacey Relic, Velvet, Thread, Industrial Felt, Resin Casted Thimbles, Lace, Dressmaker Pins, Insect Pins, Interfacing Fabric, Acrylic Paint, Glass Beads, 5.5” x 7” x 6.25”, 2020
PP: What challenges have you faced as an artist and how do you overcome them?
DJP: Living outside of a city center has made networking and building new connections challenging. It’s a little lonely here in New Jersey sometimes. However, I am starting to find an art community in the area and have loved that there has been more virtual engagement with artists these days. While being in person and seeing someone's studio and work is much more personal and engaging, I’m happy to have an alternative option and resources that can support my practice. I think as artists we are all our best selves when in conversation with one another and when we uplift each other.
PP: Name a childhood toy (or memory/cultural reference) you had, that you think relates to your practice today.
DJP: I spent my childhood tangled in thread and scrummaging through repurposed Royal Dansk Butter Cookie tins filled with imaginative bits of my grandmother’s fabric scraps, pins, buttons, thimbles and half-wound bobbins. I remember poking pins and pushing to prop up other sewing and non-sewing tools into the pile of a dark pink 1960s carpeted floor—sneakily under an ironing board that acted as my fort. This memory is a meditative place of play I go to often. Then, just like now, I don’t see pins and thimbles as just a tool to create the work, but a part of the work, which makes the work sometimes look like it's creating itself. I aim to channel collective memory through trying to discern the value we place on gendered objects by using my personal history, identity, and familial heirlooms as a jumping off point.
To learn more about Diana’s work, see her instagram and website.