Student Spotlight: Diane & Sari Menna

Diane & Sari

Diane and Sári are a special pair of women you may have seen in our classes. I remember the first time this mother and daughter duo entered my figure and portrait class at the Nassau County Museum of Art in 2017. I was immediately impressed by both their support for each other and their humble enthusiasm for learning. Their kind and understated presence softens the atmosphere in any class. Clearly cut from the same cloth, there is a determination and grit that defines them both.

Conscientious and inexhaustibly curious, the openness of Sári and Diane to new ideas and methods makes teaching them a delight. Never shying away, turning struggles into triumphs, the pair brings a calm yet secretly adventurous attitude to class, ready to experiment in style, material, technique, and idea. Both able to embrace the mysterious and unpredictable, I am often relieved to see their receptive faces after steering a class deeper into the abstract. Their recognition seems to make the ideas more real. They have taken a variety of classes with me, most recently exploring the gentle, tactile nature of pastel.

A quality I love in Sári’s work is her unapologetic use of line. Never vacant or dull, without pause or delay, she confronts her page undaunted. With the simplest of tools, a commanding force embosses itself. There is an effortless confidence to each part that miraculously produce a vulnerable whole. The nakedness and honesty in her sharp silhouettes address us so directly, the authoritative rules we rely on seem to bend their heads in curiosity. Her drawings are without pretense and entice us to doubt the certainty of laws we adhere to. Her straightforward use of graphite never betrays her frank spirit and strong will.

What I value most in Diane’s work is her careful attention to every step of her own process. If Sári uses line across the page, Diane builds with hue from the ground up. She infuses an unassuming surface with layers of responsive color and lively effect. I applaud her for realizing the significance of touch. Diane pushes her materials until they share her vision. She graciously navigates the messy journey, kind to every spill, accepting every sacrifice. The patience demanded by her paintings inspire an intensity of commitment and endurance that impresses everyone in class. Diane works and reworks, building and resolving while we revel in what she uncovers.

The best moments from both artists come when their hand is intimately connected to their spirit. Every unconscious scribble unveils an indefinable element of the feminine and human.

Diane

Sari

Sári was San Francisco-born and Manhattan-raised. She started working at age twelve, a circumstance that prevented her from ever having the chance to attend high school. However, this didn’t stop her from educating herself. While raising two children, she enrolled at UCLA’s evening drawing classes. Diane fondly remembers her early years sporting smocks made from her father’s shirts, painting alongside her mother. Having been bitten by the art bug, Sári pursued it further, enrolling at Hofstra to earn the rest of her high school credits before transferring to Hunter College where she graduated cum laude with a BFA and later a MFA. She became a teacher in the NYC school system and later worked for the Board of Education at Metropolitan Hospital in a position equivalent to principal, with behaviorally and psychiatrically diagnosed children.

Sári decided to pursue a PhD at NYU’s Fine Art program. It included two summers of study in Venice where she took every opportunity to appreciate Renaissance masters. Diane joined her parents the second summer, delving deeper into her own love of art. Unfortunately, it was during this last leg of her education that Sári’s health took a turn for the worse, and she was unable to complete her degree. Still, education, like art, is as much the journey—if not more so—than the product itself, and Sári’s accomplishments are no small feat.

Some of Sári’s accomplishments in art include exhibitions at Paperworks and Flat Iron Gallery in New York. They reflect themes of the women's movement around the world, including her show “Salute to Women in Nairobi”. She is represented in permanent collections at the National Museum of Women in Arts and Women's Interart. She designed and executed a mini-park with two large murals in Manhattan in 1974 for an environmental group’s recycling center, and collaborated with American minimalist sculptor, Tony Smith. Sári says “everything” inspires her and rejects no medium.

Diane’s path was different but bore similar fruit. First an English major, she graduated with a BFA in Communications Design from Pratt. From 1979-94, Diane spent most of her career at Condé Nast where she eventually became Creative Services Director for Glamour. Several years later, she faced her own severe medical issues and had to reevaluate her future. Like her mother, she persevered and went back to school to learn art therapy at SVA. Regarding our studies together, Diane has said, “One of the things I really get out of your classes is the opportunity to learn basic classic painting and drawing techniques that I missed at a most prestigious art school!”

It is a pleasure to have such inspiring women in our classes. There is so much to learn from them and I feel fortunate to be a part of their creative endeavors.