PRESS RELEASE Diane Cockerill was born and raised in Los Angeles, a third-generation Angeleno and majored in Fine Arts at UCLA. Her interest in photography began when her father gave her a Kodak Instamatic camera with a roll of film on her tenth birthday, and life-long passion was set in motion. The Instamatic was replaced by a 35 mm Minolta SLR, but recently Diane has found that digital photography provides the immediacy she requires as she swings around Los Angeles, creating her “Curbiture” project. Diane has participated in several group shows in the Los Angeles area and had her first solo exhibit of her work at Orlando Gallery in June, 2007. As I wind my way through the streets of Los Angeles, I envision curbs as meandering riverbanks, rich with meaning in their encoded system; swift currents of color, patterns and language. Curbs are essential to our sense of urban order as their imposed structure guides us through the ebb and flow of traffic; utilitarian, but at the same time, magical, linear pieces of art. My collages are layers of hues and shapes, combining scuffed, faded or vibrant curb images, bringing attention to otherwise overlooked street borders, then emerge as a powerful new art form. I seek out the freshly cemented, the cracked, broken, and gritty surfaces, and play with dimensions and planes to trick the eye. The challenge is constant to find a new word, a nuanced color or inspiring texture. The inventory is virtually endless. Diane Cockerill