“indelible: Artists Portraits” by Diane Beals Opens

indelible: Artist Portraits by Diane Beals, an exhibit in two parts, has opened in the Level 2 Gallery at the Salem Convention Center and in the new Art Hall at the Salem Public Library. The exhibits document, using black and white photography, a group of artists in Salem who have made indelible and memorable marks through their art and creative practices. Both shows run through the end of September 2022. 

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 hang 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, inviting the viewer to closely study the photographs to match each artist with a process shot. 

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. 

About Diane Beals

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 countless cups of coffee.  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.”

At the same time, she spent three years documenting the work of the Alzheimer's Network of Oregon, traveling to different facilities to document the residents. Her large scale portraits hung at the Network's annual fundraiser. Beals portraits caught the attention of the residents’ families — “I have not seen that smile in my dad for YEARS!”,  "You captured our mother in a way that will remain in our hearts forever!"  Beals’ own father was diagnosed with the dreadful disease during the three year span of her project. "It gave me some insight into the world my dad was entering." 

In the community, Diane Beals was a judge for the photography show at the Oregon State Fair and a juror for the Salem Art Fair. In 2016, Salem voted her “Best of the Mid-Valley” for her photographs documenting people on the streets of Salem. She has had several exhibits at the Bush Barn Art Annex. The most recent was “Girl Power”, documenting girls age 6-18 and showcasing what each is passionate about:  a catcher in her softball uniform, inside a church, someone wanting to be photographed with her grandpa. “It was about them.” 

Diane Beals invites each viewer to stare into her portraits. “In a way they’re hard to look at, yet hard to look away from.”