Diana Leavengood

  Diana Lucas Leavengood graduated Keuka College with a BA in Political Science and History. She attended Cal Arts where she was selected for the MFA DTVC (Directing for Theatre, Video, Cinema) program originated by Ealing Studios comedy master Alexander Mackendrick (The Ladykillers). Her’s was the last class to study with Mackendrick before his death. After completing numerous award-winning short films, Leavengood translated her cinematic background to the medium of still photography. Having lost both parents to lung cancer she examines the guilt and shame she had about her own nicotine habit in a series of photographs entitled Self Portrait w/Last Cigarette. By masking her identity, Leavengood is free to hear art patrons speak frankly about her work not realizing she is most likely standing beside them when they do. Many believe that Self Portrait #2 is an image of a transvestite. It is not. “I know a piece is done when I get a pleasant shock in my shoulders when looking at the proofs. That feeling is generally fleeting. When my work is going well, I am filled with a sense of dread and guilt because I am descended from Scotch Presbyters, Baptists who used to be Quakers, lapsed Irish Catholics and Swedes who tried to farm a rock strewn hillside in upstate New York.”