Bio
Diane DiMassa does not have an art degree. Diane is self-taught, having inherited the gift of art from her mother, who claims to not have it. She grew up in West Haven, CT, and has lived in San Francisco, Massachusetts, and accidentally in the Bronx for a few disastrous months in the eighties. She now lives in Bridgeport, CT and wonders.
After graduating from High School, DiMassa was accepted into Paier College of Art in Hamden, CT. She left after six months with five incompletes and a B, due to a maturity snag.
Some years later there was an attempt at attending Cooper Union in NYC, where DiMassa submitted a drawing of herself with a wooden arm (which she does not have) for a self-portrait along with some other drawings which she hopes are destroyed. (She was not accepted.)
DiMassa has taken several classes at local art hubs over the years including painting, life drawing, and sculpture. There is also the matter of the two year degree in "visual communications" from which she ascertained that she hates graphic design and is no good at it, learned computer applications that were obsolete at the time of graduation, and incurred a student loan debt. Excellent.
Diane DiMassa is well-known as the creator of the cult-status cartoon hero Hothead Paisan which she drew for ten years starting in the early nineties. The Hothead comics deal with societal angst, minority marginalization, rage, and just plain fun. The Hothead anthology, which is still in print, is considered the bible of something by many long-time fervent fans, as well as rabid new recruits.
DiMassa has contributed comics to numerous anthologies and illustrated several books and a graphic novel. She feels the discipline developed from cartooning and illustrating has been invaluable, and well worth tendonitis and night-blindness. She was also concurrently a tattoo artist and painted when space allowed, with a slight focus on urban matter and bones. She held a job for two years in the mid-nineties as an assistant scenic (shop rat) at a theater scenery studio. The rest of DiMassa's employment history is of no consequence.
DiMassa started showing color pieces in 1994 based on her cartoons, which then widened out to related pieces focusing on societal angst. She spent a few years making angry street art with great satisfaction, and then began aging and feeling the need for a more personal, deeper mode of expression (although Barbie voodoo heads are still produced.) DiMassa found a symbiosis in 2007 with abstract art to great reception and almost immediately started to draw collectors. Although there is an emphasis on the abstract, DiMassa is a varied and versatile artist who enjoys the ability to work in many styles, from collage to portrait to nonsense, as the spirit dictates.
