Neighbors

Adding some color to the library

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Diana Fogarty has two pleasures in life — books and art. For her day job, she works at the Wantagh Library, and at home, she spends time painting in her studio. Recently, her two worlds came together.

Fogarty is the featured artist this month at the Wantagh Library, with many of her pieces hanging in the community room. She is a part-time page there, and her primary responsibility is shelving books. “I love the library,” she said. “It’s relaxing. It’s just a nice place to work.”

Page positions are often given to students — Fogarty started working for the Sayville Library when she was in high school — but nine years ago, Wantagh had a need and she was interested. She has lived in the community since 1989.

Each month, the library features the work of a different artist, and Fogarty was glad to have the opportunity to show off her work. She works mostly with oil paints, and noted that the smell takes her back to the days when she was growing up and her mother painted.

Fogarty had four children within five years, and once her children were off to school by the mid-1980s, she picked up painting as a hobby. She found an art teacher and learned basic painting skills and how to work with different mediums. Over the years, she has done landscapes, portraits and abstract paintings.

Her first ever painting was an ocean and beach scene. After her brother-in-law was killed in 1990, she painted a portrait of him from an existing photograph. “It was something more than just remembering him,” she said, noting that the painting usually hangs in her living room. “There was something extra to it.”

Those are just two of the more than dozen paintings that are now hanging in the library. She selected her favorites of the more than 100 paintings she has done over the years. Some normally hang in her home, while others were given as gifts to friends and family members.

There are other paintings that Fogarty admits she doesn’t like anymore, as her tastes have changed over the years.

Her favorite types of paintings are abstract, because they are open to interpretation. Fogarty said she always likes to learn the different objects people see in her paintings.

Fogarty has dabbled in water color painting, and even done some drawings with colored pencils, but says oil painting is by far her favorite. “It’s forgiving,” she said. “You can move the paint. It doesn’t dry so quick.”

She used to paint in her kitchen, but with her children grown and out of the house, she was able to turn a bedroom into a studio. Fogarty noted that she paints in spurts, and will sometimes put her brush down for weeks or months at a time. “I keep picking it up again,” she said.

Artistic ability runs in the family. In addition to her mother, her daughter, Diana, used to always draw as a child and is now involved with Splashes of Hope, an organization that creates murals at hospitals.

Fogarty said she has done one other art show in the past. She is excited to have her work hung in the heavily-used community room at the library, and hopes to hear feedback on her paintings.

“I am very excited to be able to provide a means to showcase the talent of Wantagh residents,” said Library Director Maggie Marino. “Diana Fogarty is a very talented artist and I hope the community will come to the library to experience her work. I think it is important to bring the arts into the community.”

Fogarty’s show runs through Nov. 30.