Mignonne's New Featured Artists

For our next round of featured artwork, we wanted to offer affordable original work by strong female artists. We are lucky to host two local artists that fit the description. We'd like to introduce them to you now:

Diana Blackwell

Dahling

Diana Blackwell makes monoprints and monoprint collages with bright colors and a whimsical flavor, often depicting ladies and flowers. In addition, Blackwell does drawings, acrylic paintings, woodcuts and linocuts, collage, paper mache, and digital photography (see www.flickr.com/diana_blackwell/).

Blackwell's work has no typical style and expresses no particular vision. Her work ranges from obscene underground cartoons to devotional Christian paintings, and from non-representational formalism to traditional realism. About the only thing her works all share is an avoidance of impasto.

Blackwell has had a little formal art instruction but is mostly self-taught. She works as a figurative art model and publicist with the Bay Area Models Guild. She lives in Berkeley with her husband and two cats.

We find Diana's work evokes a sense of the strong female spirit with an ethereal aesthetic.

Paige Camerino

Coco Chanel

Paige Camerino is an emerging local bay area artist. Note her artist's statement below:

"I am a self-taught artist aspiring to be a linguist. Born in the South Bay, and raised in the Easy Bay, people watching, jazz, and the extremities of life have greatly inspired my work long since the days of my tender infancy. I have been drawing for as long as I can remember. I would sit cross-legged before a stack of scrap-pieces of paper on top of this tiny-haggard coffee table, and I would literally draw for hours at a time. Like Mignonne and its two owners, I have submitted myself completely to the francophile community. I am studying French in school, and I plan to one day live there. I am however open to more than just France, and as as an absolute linguaphile, I plan to one day expand my horizons and exercise the modest albeit growing knowledge I have of other languages. My goal is the learn as many languages as I possibly can and utilizing them in all of the world's 195 countries, leaving behind meaningful traces in my name. Watch out for my flags on mountaintops, world!"

We loved the youthful exuberance of Paige's art and were excited to share it with the Mignonne community!

Both artists will be featured in a Friday night late hours reception during the upcoming Oakland Art Murmur. As a gentle reminder, the Oakland Art Murmur event features a group of galleries and boutiques in Oakland that have openings every first Friday of the month.

We are proud to feature the original works of these artists at affordable prices that make owning an original piece attainable for our customers. Feel free to stop by the shop, or use our blog contact feature to get more information.