This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Dublin Arts Council’s galleries will be bursting with color and nature during Impressions in Quilt and Watercolor, an exhibition running through June 30. The Dublin Arts Council sat down with the artist, Diana Whitmer Francko, to learn more about her creative process, inspirations and artistic path.
Q: Can you give some background on your artistic journey?
Diana Whitmer Francko
Diana Whitmer Francko
A: I grew up in Wauseon, Ohio, and first tried watercolor in high school during the late 1960s. At Kent State, I became interested in acrylics, but then Mel Someroski, a well-known enamellist, introduced me to enameling and metalsmithing. I completed a summer internship with him. Later, I continued this path at Michigan State and earned an M.F.A. in Jewelry and Metals in 1980.
For 25 years, I showed my enameling and jewelry work both locally and internationally. In the 1990s, while raising a family, I began working in art quilting, an easier medium to work with around small children. I focused on Native American themes and adding metal and stone details. My quilts were displayed at places such as “Quilt National” in Athens, Ohio, and “Visions: Quilt Art” in San Diego, California, and later in exhibitions in New York, Ohio, and Alabama.
In the mid-2000s, my husband’s job moved us to Tuscaloosa. I was depressed and looking to connect with people. I found a group of female painters who got together regularly to paint, which led me back to watercolors. As my life changed, so did I, and my art changed too; in a way I’ve come full circle.
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Q: What sparked your interest in cultural narratives?
A: When my children were young, we took family trips to historic sites in Ohio that were linked to ancient cultures. That’s when I became truly interested in the Hopewell and Adena cultures. I started studying them closely, and that passion soon showed up in my quilting. I also began blending my metalsmithing experience into my quilts by adding metal and stone details.
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Q: Could you describe your process for applying Impressionist techniques to fabric and quilting? What was challenging? What was fulfilling?
A: When I traveled to France, I was deeply inspired by Monet and Impressionism, and I wanted to bring that into my work.
I would start with a lot of fabric. I’d iron it, cut it into strips and use those strips as my color palette. Then I would work through them one by one, arranging lines of squares, gluing them down and always stepping back to look, just like with an impressionist painting. It takes time to adjust and see what works.
This process was more of a logistical challenge than anything I had done before. I tried out different glues, tools and techniques to achieve the look I wanted.
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Diana Whitmer Francko
Scottish Landscape
Q: How did you reach a point where your watercolors and quilts began to inspire each other?
A: It began with a mosaic quilt idea inspired by a Scottish landscape. I realized watercolor could serve as a sketch, offering a looser, more flexible way to explore color and movement before working with fabric. It just made sense to let the watercolors guide the quilts.
Watercolor lets me capture landscapes quickly and freely, playing with color in ways that fabric can’t match right away. I often work on small 4x6 pieces, and sometimes I like one so much that it becomes the plan for a whole quilt. The two mediums began to inspire each other naturally.
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Q: With experience across so many mediums, is there anything you'd like to explore next?
A: I’d love to try oil painting again. I experimented with it in college, but now I want to approach it with an Impressionist perspective. I think it would feel very different at this stage in my career.
Above all, what motivates me is an inner need to create. I usually have three or four pieces in progress at once. That’s always been the case, no matter what medium I’m working with.
Diana Whitmer Francko
Raygan Barrett is the Director of Design & Strategy at Dublin Arts Council.
