AUBURN - Diane DelPiano was not well.
Jill Connor / The Citizen
Diane DelPiano's art, including portraits of women she's never met, is on display at The Center in Auburn.
Diane DelPiano's art, including portraits of women she's never met, is on display at The Center in Auburn.
She would set out for a drive, then be forced to pull off the road to remember where she had been headed. Barely five minutes after getting out of bed she would find herself wishing it was night.
She became dizzy often. She needed an allergy shot for just about everything she ate.
The few hours she could stay awake she spent knitting, crocheting or piecing together quilts.
“Art for me is therapy. It is a healing place,” said DelPiano, 66, of Auburn. “When I'm there I'm not paying attention to the pains and the physical symptoms.”
More than 20 years after DelPiano became sick, she is displaying decades' worth of her work, a collection of weavings, paintings and collages interwoven with personal memories, at The Center in Auburn - a place that represents how she got better and what inspired this first show, “Spirit Hands.”
DelPiano, a registered nurse, turned to holistic therapy when traditional methods did not help her chronic fatigue or many allergies. Intrigued by the energy healing methods that had made her feel, in her words, 90 percent healthier, she came back to The Center, where she now works as a practitioner of gemstone therapy and reiki, which transfers energy from a higher force through a practitioner's hands to soothe a patient's ailment.
“Some people have a fear of the unknown,” said DelPiano, who set aside her long-held faith in western medicine in embracing a holistic approach. “I dive in.”
DelPiano's first art show filled The Center's lounge with samples of her vast artistic interests. A loom draped with striped weavings was tucked in one corner; afghans and quilts hung on chairs nearby. Along one wall hung nine collages depicting fairies, angels, women in surreal scenes of flowers, clouds and glitter. Tiled on another wall were painted portraits of women DelPiano has never met.
“Those people came out of my mind's eye,” she said. “I may see a background, I may see a figure. Then I try to put it into that form.”
The meaning of much of her work cannot be put into words, she said. They are products of the moment, the emotions she experienced in a particular hour, on a certain day or during a period of time.
A knitted afghan, for example, takes longer to complete than a portrait and, as a result, has more emotion in the mix.
When she would be up at night, anxious about her sons on the road late at night: “You crochet a little bit.”
When she would be unable to sleep, watching her baby breathe heavily with the flu: “You knit a little bit.”
“She really puts her whole heart and soul in,” said Paul DelPiano, Diane's husband.
Paul said he has always been supportive of his wife's interest in art and was excited when she brought up the idea of having an art show.
Her colleagues at The Center were equally excited.
“We celebrated it, just celebrated it that she had the courage to do it,” said friend and co-worker Beth Miller. “It was almost as if it gave us all permission to feel good about our own artwork.”
Miller, who has known DelPiano since the 1990s, said she can see in shapes and colors of her friend's art the influence of her experiences with reiki and other energy healing practices. The attention to detail that is evident in DelPiano's art is reflective of her approach to her patients, Miller said.
At The Center, DelPiano practices gemstone therapy and reiki, both spiritual healing experiences that must be handled delicately. DelPiano provides for her patients a spiritual but secular, relaxing but still vulnerable healing experience, Miller said. Before each session, she meditates.
“You can just tell when she does something she does it with passion,” said Miller, “and gusto and love and enthusiasm.”
Staff writer Sarah Gantz can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 237 or sarah.gantz@lee.net
If you go
What: “Spirit Hands,” a collection of art by Diane DelPiano
When: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily through Nov. 30
Where: The Center, 1 Hoffman St., Auburn
Cost: Free
Info: Call The Center at 704-0319
She became dizzy often. She needed an allergy shot for just about everything she ate.
The few hours she could stay awake she spent knitting, crocheting or piecing together quilts.
“Art for me is therapy. It is a healing place,” said DelPiano, 66, of Auburn. “When I'm there I'm not paying attention to the pains and the physical symptoms.”
More than 20 years after DelPiano became sick, she is displaying decades' worth of her work, a collection of weavings, paintings and collages interwoven with personal memories, at The Center in Auburn - a place that represents how she got better and what inspired this first show, “Spirit Hands.”
DelPiano, a registered nurse, turned to holistic therapy when traditional methods did not help her chronic fatigue or many allergies. Intrigued by the energy healing methods that had made her feel, in her words, 90 percent healthier, she came back to The Center, where she now works as a practitioner of gemstone therapy and reiki, which transfers energy from a higher force through a practitioner's hands to soothe a patient's ailment.
“Some people have a fear of the unknown,” said DelPiano, who set aside her long-held faith in western medicine in embracing a holistic approach. “I dive in.”
DelPiano's first art show filled The Center's lounge with samples of her vast artistic interests. A loom draped with striped weavings was tucked in one corner; afghans and quilts hung on chairs nearby. Along one wall hung nine collages depicting fairies, angels, women in surreal scenes of flowers, clouds and glitter. Tiled on another wall were painted portraits of women DelPiano has never met.
“Those people came out of my mind's eye,” she said. “I may see a background, I may see a figure. Then I try to put it into that form.”
The meaning of much of her work cannot be put into words, she said. They are products of the moment, the emotions she experienced in a particular hour, on a certain day or during a period of time.
A knitted afghan, for example, takes longer to complete than a portrait and, as a result, has more emotion in the mix.
When she would be up at night, anxious about her sons on the road late at night: “You crochet a little bit.”
When she would be unable to sleep, watching her baby breathe heavily with the flu: “You knit a little bit.”
“She really puts her whole heart and soul in,” said Paul DelPiano, Diane's husband.
Paul said he has always been supportive of his wife's interest in art and was excited when she brought up the idea of having an art show.
Her colleagues at The Center were equally excited.
“We celebrated it, just celebrated it that she had the courage to do it,” said friend and co-worker Beth Miller. “It was almost as if it gave us all permission to feel good about our own artwork.”
Miller, who has known DelPiano since the 1990s, said she can see in shapes and colors of her friend's art the influence of her experiences with reiki and other energy healing practices. The attention to detail that is evident in DelPiano's art is reflective of her approach to her patients, Miller said.
At The Center, DelPiano practices gemstone therapy and reiki, both spiritual healing experiences that must be handled delicately. DelPiano provides for her patients a spiritual but secular, relaxing but still vulnerable healing experience, Miller said. Before each session, she meditates.
“You can just tell when she does something she does it with passion,” said Miller, “and gusto and love and enthusiasm.”
Staff writer Sarah Gantz can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 237 or sarah.gantz@lee.net
If you go
What: “Spirit Hands,” a collection of art by Diane DelPiano
When: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily through Nov. 30
Where: The Center, 1 Hoffman St., Auburn
Cost: Free
Info: Call The Center at 704-0319
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cryinryan wrote on Nov 8, 2009 9:36 AM: