indelible: Artist Portraits

Diane Beals

June 7 – October 3, 2022

indelible: Artist Portraits by Diane Beals, documented, in black and white photography, a group of artists in Salem who have made indelible and memorable marks through their art and creative practices.

Diane Beals is best known for her street photography documenting the houseless community throughout Salem. For indelible, she photographed fourteen artists in their work spaces, as well as some aspect of their artistic process such as a tool, materials or a work of art in progress. Portraits of the artists hung in Level 2 at the Convention Center. The process images form a companion show in the Art Hall at the Library.  While the artists depicted at the Level 2 Gallery are fully identified, the works at the Library are not, challenging the viewer to study the photographs to match each artist with his or her process. 

For indelible, Beals photographed artists Rob Bibler, Jon Colburn, Nancy Eng, Carol Hausser, Bonnie Hull, Kristin Kuhns, Nancy Lindburg, Sue-Del McCulloch, Jude Morales, Dave Nichols and the late Sandra Nichols (working collaboratively as nic and sloy), Randall Tosh, April Waters, Krista West, and Gary Westford. 

Diane Beals grew up working the corn and wheat fields of her family’s Silverton, Oregon farm. She went on to work at Roth’s IGA, the local grocery store, for thirteen years. By then, she’d been given her first camera, a Minolta, and she found photography thrilling. It was her passion and it gave her a voice. A few years later, closing in on 40, she earned a BA in photography and a minor in business from Oregon State University.

From 2000-2012, Beals ran a studio in downtown Salem, already home to a small but growing group of homeless men and women she befriended over time. Her spirit itched to get out of the studio onto the streets.  She closed the doors and began a decade-long process of documenting people on the street “…in a way that will make you REALLY want to look. Where in real life, most will turn away.”

indelible: Artist Portraits by Diane Beals was generously sponsored by Sherman Sherman Johnnie & Hoyt LLP.