Diana Fairbanks, Ed.D.

Biographical Data

Diana Fairbanks was born in Seattle and now practices artmaking at her studio in Olympia, WA. She became interested in visual art and writing at an early age. She specialized in Biological Sciences and Fine Arts at Wenatchee Valley College and then received a full-tuition scholarship to study Fine Arts at Fort Wright College in Spokane, WA. Outstanding teachers during those years included: Robert Graves, Sr. Paula Mary Turnbull and Benjamin Franklin Moss. She completed a B.A. and B.F.A. in painting, drawing and a wide variety of related media. In that time, she also had her first solo shows of paintings and drawings. Later, Diana received a Kellogg Allied Health Education Fellowship to study Medical Illustration as part of her graduate program in Educational Technology. She completed an M.Ed. and an Ed.D. in that specialty.

During and after completing her graduate studies, Diana taught drawing, design, illustration and a wide variety of media production courses at public and private institutions of higher education including: Shoreline Community College, Bellevue Community College, University of Washington, Heritage University, and Western Washington University. Her former students follow fine art and visual communication and teaching careers throughout the Northwest.  She is affiliated with Alois Phogg Studio, and Joan Longstaff and Associates and a recent recipient of an Artist’s Trust EDGE Program Scholarship.     

Currently, Diana is a full-time visual artist who fulfills commissions and continues her teaching as Artist-in-Residence with the Tacoma Museum of Glass, in classes at Heritage University and Olympia Arts and Recreation as well as private lessons. She works in a variety of media including watercolor, acrylic, encaustic and oil media and uses a variety of printmaking methods. As well, Diana is completely comfortable with art-making by computer.

Artist’s Statement

I relish the excuse to look at the world carefully and intensely and to record the wonders that I can observe. I delight in the opportunity to mess with colors and textures to recreate the facts of the beautiful things I see. My art is considered representational and I often integrate my intrest in science into images.

I also enjoy collecting and painting common objects in tabletop still lifes. Many of my works are about the habit and necessity of eating and involve foodstuffs and related objects. Others focus on landscapes, particularly those of my home state of Washington.

I also value the process of art-making in itself. This explains my continued interest in teaching art-making to others. And it makes clear my passion for drawing, as a valuable art form in itself and as a preparation for other arts such as painting and print-making. I am interested in obscure drawing media because they require the artist to focus, with new skills, on the exploratory process of selecting, arranging, observing, recording, and evaluating a subject. They also illuminate the history of art and technology and suggest the future of that alliance.