Doriana Diaz (@bydorianadiaz) is a visual designer, writer, poet, and artist who isn't afraid to lean into vulnerability and authenticity, and hopes her creations will allow others to do the same.
You mentioned that art has save your life "more than once." In what way has it, and how can people use different mediums of art to save theirs?
I grew up knowing that art was an inherent vessel of healing. I knew that art had a way of curating its own essence, an energy that could move you in more ways than one. It could make you fall apart, bring you to tears, reclaim your own joy, conspire with your own memory in ways nothing else could. I utilize the medium of collage art as a way to understand the happenings around me. I use it as a vessel for connection to my lineage, to the collective archive of culture and restoration — that saves me every single time.
Your handcrafted journals are beautiful. How do you find inspiration for them?
My journals have been a new project that I have taken on. In some ways, I believe that I was honoring my younger self through this endeavor. I learned how to bookbind while I was living in Rome years ago and fell in love with the practice. When I returned home, I fell out of touch with it. A few months ago, an energy began to call me back to it. While collage has been a craft that I harnessed and have been exploring for years, I decided to combine both of them and make journals with collages on the covers. I find inspiration for them everywhere. In my practice, I do not print any images. All visual elements are sourced from tangible materials like records, CDs, textbooks, newspapers, and so many other places. The inspiration comes from my inner core — it sounds so strange, but there is a feeling that overcomes me when I find different images from places and combine them to make something that may have never existed together before.
What type of community care events are your favorite, and why do you find them to be so important and impactful in your life?
All kinds. I believe that community care is the medicine for everything. I have been so impacted by certain spaces and the memories made within the constraints of a few hours or moments spent present in them — but the debris of it continues to live inside me for a lifetime. Community care is kinship, kinship is lineage, lineage is memory, and memory is everything all the time.
