South End Open Studios 2013 - Tea House Open All Day

Tea House All Day, oil on panel, 18 X 24 inches by Marian Dioguardi c2013

This painting will be at in my studio just in time for South End Open Studios! Saturday and Sunday, 450 Harrison Ave ,Studio 223B,Boston from 11-6PM.

It's the first painting  in a series I have wanted to do for four years called " My Chinatown".  It is a risk to change upsubjects like this because it's not the subject of previous paintings in my body of work. This is a nexus (really, "nexus" is the only word that I could think of here) of previous paintings of unassuming objects and places and of the paintings to come of the humble but noble and beautiful disappearing Chinatowns. Unlike Edward Hopper's paintings infused with melancholy these works are infused with  celebration ; not for their disappearance but for their existence which inspired my work and  life.

I was born and raised here in Boston during a grey and industrial time. With this series I want to express my gratitude and love for Chinatown, the place that gave me color. And for all the artists who walked into my studio and said "What are you doing THAT for." I am doing it for love.