Dianne Baker

Dianne Baker is an artist and arts educator who specializes in fiber works and mixed media sculpture. Her work often incorporates a sense of humor in assembling society’s detritus in unusual combinations. One of her few minimal works, Swept Away II, has more in common with domestic chores (as a graveyard for used broomsticks) than with Lena Wertmüller’s 1974 film about class difference which was less successfully remade by Guy Ritchie in 2002. (Nancy Weekly, Head of Collections and Charles Cary Rumsey Curator, 2011)

Swept Away ll is a rustic feeling sculpture comprised of broom handles. Nestled together in a tight banded horizontal orientation, the piece somehow evokes a warm kind of nostalgia. The patina of these broom handles can bring up memories of seeing tools in old garages; evidence of labor from long ago – evidence of all the hands that held these handles over time. (Tom Holt, Head Preparator, 2019)