I create assemblage artwork with found objects, natural materials, vintage oddities, unrecyclable plastic, and most passionately, objects discarded on beaches, in rivers, parking lots, and roadside streets and highways. My inspiration originally stemmed from decades of collecting objects on remote beaches, forests, and tundra in Alaska before moving to the Treasure Valley in 2015. Yes, trash invades the most pristine of environments, even in our beautiful state of Idaho. My goals center around creating art with these materials to bring attention to the global environmental and health-related issues related to discarded materials in our environment, especially plastic. It has been calculated that 33 billion pounds of plastic enter our waters every year and will NEVER fully degrade. Many of us remember a time without much plastic in our lives. And we also recognize vintage or antiques objects that last a lifetime; made of wood, metal, and glass. You will find many pieces embedded in my art, as a constant reminder that we can reduce our plastic consumption by choosing such sturdy, finely crafted items over our modern, lightweight, convenient, and disposable plastic.
Dyan Ferren is a self-taught artist who has been creating assemblage sculpture from natural and manmade discarded materials for the past 30 years. Born and raised on the East Coast, she moved to coastal Alaska in 1985 and credits the wild and beautiful surroundings of that remote and beautiful state for generating her passion to create sculptures with touchable materials that are unique, colorful, and bursting with texture. She relocated to Idaho in 2014 and enjoys discovering new materials in the high desert environment to utilize in her sculpture.
Her sculptural work has a story to tell of our modern society’s propensity to collect material goods which eventually end up being discarded as trash. Her goal is to utilize art as a universal messenger to encourage all people, young and old, to share in the responsibility to become part of the solution to reduce, reuse, and recycle materials to minimize the impact on the environment and improve the health of our planet.
Dyan has exhibited her work throughout Alaska, Oregon, and in the Treasure Valley area of Idaho. Other works include traveling to Greece to exhibit a collaborative photographic series at the Goulandris Natural History Museum ‘Message from the Sea’ exhibit. In addition, she was the co-originator of the Alaskan ‘Gyre’ project, which involved a team of artists and scientists collaborating on an art project collecting ocean trash in the Gulf of Alaska. The trash was transformed into sculptural and photographic art which resulted in a 7,500 square foot exhibition at the Anchorage Museum of Art and a National Geographic film about the project.
BOSCO - Boise Open Studios October 2024
Zion Bank Art Show - May 2023
Wassmuth Center K-12th grade art contest Judge April 2023
BOSCO - Boise Open Studios October 2022
Art By the River - City of Star - Art Juror September 2022
Art By the River - City of Star - Art educator interactive display Sept 2022
Idaho Botanical Garden - Ephemeral Land Art March 2022 Tornado in the Valley
Surel’s Place - Trouble in the Water - Green Box Installation May 2021
Idaho Botanical Garden - Ephemeral Land Art March 2021 After the Fire
BOSCO - Boise Open Studios October 2020
Idaho Botanical Garden - Ephemeral Land Art March 2020 Cretaceous Nest
Surel’s Place PopUp show - December 2019
Baker City Oregon - Little Big Show (8x8) August 2019
Eagle Public Library - featured artist (sculpture) March 2019
Boise State, People, Planet, Solutions art show (Earth Day event April 2018)
Boise Watershed Environmental Education Center (Earth Day art workshop 7/2018
ReUse Market - Garden City October 2018
Baker City Oregon - Little Big Show (8x8) August 2018 & 2019
Eagle Arts Commission - featured artist (sculpture) July 2018
Emmett Arts Commission - Cherry Festival Art Show June 2018
Eagle Arts Commission - Art That’s Small June 2018
Zion Bank Art Show - Boise May 2018
Smith & Coelho Fine Art Show April 2018
Finer Frames - Fine Art in Miniature Eagle, November 2017
Initial Point Gallery - Meridian City Hall (2 person show) June 2017
Boise Watershed Environmental Education Ctr - kids art totem class July 2017
Art Zone 208 ‘HOPE’ exhibition September 2016
Initial Point Gallery ‘My Favorite Things’ May 2016
Art Source Gallery - Six by Six exhibition March 2016
Art Source Gallery - Metamorphosis’ exhibition January 2016
Eagle Art Gallery - guest artist January 2016
Treasure Valley Artists Alliance - quarterly exhibits 2015-2018
