Diana Ahrens Fine Art

I have been an abstract colorist for most of my life and prefer to create with color-emotion rather than symbolism or figurative forms. I’m inspired by nature’s beautiful play of texture and color, and purposely create circumstances for natural forms to appear in my work. Each piece begins with raw annealed copper and is sculpted by hammering using chasing and repoussé techniques. The piece then goes through a metal fabrication process adding stainless steel structures to support the copper during the subsequent furnace firings. Layers of finely ground glass are melted one at a time, incrementally building up the final color composition. A piece can take up to 40 separate firings in the furnace, melting the glass at 1500F. The glass and metal sculpture is manipulated while hot to create the final shape. In addition to the copper, a piece consists of transparent and opaque glass, fine silver, 24kt gold, and is framed and mounted on polished and ground 316L stainless.