1950-2003

AAA.dimadomi

Biographical Note

Fiber artist Dominic Di Mare was born in San Francisco, California, in 1932. He grew up working on his father's fishing boat and was artistically influenced by the process of making rope and fishing lines. After finishing high school, Di Mare attended the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland and later received his art teaching certification at San Francisco State University. In 1960, Di Mare married Margaret Nef, bought his first loom, and began teaching at Francisco Junior High School. He and his wife had three children together, Marcello, Lorenzo, and Livia. A highly respected teacher, Di Mare taught at Francisco Junior High until 1976, when he left to work in his studio full-time.

A self taught fiber artist, Di Mare has explored, throughout his career, the imagery of the ocean and the shore. He works with fiber, wood, handmade paper, and small found objects to create unique sculptures. Since his first one person show at The Yarn Depot in 1963, Di Mare has participated in numerous national and international exhibitions and has been represented by the Anneberg Gallery and Braunstein Gallery in San Francisco, Florence Duhl Gallery in New York, and most recently the Susan Cummins Gallery in Mill Valley, California. In 1998 the Palo Alto Art Center curated "Dominic Di Mare: A Retrospective," which traveled throughout the country. In 1999 Di Mare received the American Crafts Council Gold Medal Award.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged into six series:

Scope and Content Note

The papers of Dominic Di Mare measure 3.2 linear feet and date from 1950 to 2003. The collection provides an overview of Di Mare's career as a fiber artist through biographical information, correspondence, writings, printed material, artwork, and photographs. Of particular interest is the material concerning Di Mare's 1998 retrospective exhibition, including correspondence, a guest book, writings, publications, and photographs.

Biographical material includes award certificates from the American Craft Council and an extensive professional resumé. The correspondence series includes personal and professional correspondence as well as three folders of incoming and outgoing correspondence with the Susan Cummins Gallery, revealing the relationship that Di Mare had with the gallery during the 1990s. Writings include those by Di Mare and others. Of note are numerous artist statements and an illustrated journal from 1971. The printed material provides researchers with press clippings, exhibition catalogs, announcements, and published material on Di Mare, as well as other printed material on topics that Di Mare found of interest, including craft in education and the art of his colleagues. The artwork series includes many drawings, the highlight being a sketchbook of color drawings and diagrams spanning a thirty year period. The extensive collection of photographs include many portraits of Di Mare, photos of exhibitions, and numerous photos and slides of his artwork.

An unprocessed small addition of 0.4 linear feet consists of correspondence with colleagues, arts organizations, galleries, and museums regarding exhibitions and publications; photographs of De Mare at work and of works of art, including two flash drives containing images of works of art; exhibition catalogs and announcements; and one schematic drawing of an unidentified work by De Mare, 1990.

Related Material

The Archives also has a transcribed interview of Dominic Di Mare, conducted June 4 and 10, 2002 by Signe Mayfield for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America. The interview was conducted in Di Mare's home in Tiburon, California.

Processing Information

The collection was processed by Erin Corley in March, 2005, as part of the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America. The 2013 addition of 0.4 linear feet is unprocessed and minimally described in this finding aid.