This summer, Cincinnati Opera is featuring Katrina Dienno’s artwork to be displayed during our 2024 production of Don Giovanni. Dienno is an illustrator, educator, and printmaker based in Cincinnati who has had her work featured in local and national exhibitions. Much like how our season features strong female characters and artists through the art of opera, her work features the representation of women in mythology, folklore, and fairytales. Her large-scale relief woodblock prints represent the cultural relevance of how women have historically been portrayed. As a sneak peek into what you will see from her this season, check out some of her work with her words below!
Spill the Tea
72” x 36”
Woodcut on paper
This woodblock was inspired by several different fairytales, most notably, The Island of Happiness by Madame Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy, who also coined the term “fairytale.” She and her works are not as well-known as her male counterparts of the time but include many powerful and complex female main characters. Spill the Tea also has hints of Greek Mythology, references to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, and Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper.
Tiamat
72” x 36”
Woodcut on paper
In Ancient Mesopotamian mythology, Tiamat was the primordial mother goddess and personification of saltwater and chaos and is often depicted as a serpent or a dragon. Together with Apsu, god of freshwater, she births a family of gods and goddesses. One of the later gods, Marduk, decides to overthrow Tiamat and with his arrow, shoots her in the heart, and splits her in half. Her top half becomes the heavens and her bottom half the Earth. From her tears sprang the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
I chose to display Tiamat as both a hybrid serpent-dragon figure displaying immense raw power and carnage. Ships and boats have traditionally been a male-dominated field with the ships bearing women’s names. I chose to have Tiamat violently split this ship into two halves, much like her body from the original myth.
Joan of Arc
36” x 42”
Woodcut on paper
Joan of Arc, a famous historical and mythical figure, is the patron saint of France. She claimed she received divine visions from God, and it was her mission to free France from British occupation. Although she never fought in battle, just her presence on the battlefield was enough to rally the French army’s spirits and lead them to victory.
She was eventually captured and sold to the English and put on trial for heresy and wearing men’s clothing. She was found guilty and burned at the stake at the age of nineteen.
In this contemporary image of Joan of Arc, instead of depicting the horse she originally would have ridden, she now rides a motorcycle, foot defiantly placed upon the front wheel in the midst of flames. She still waves the white flag adorned with the fleur-de-lis motif as smoke billows in the background. She displays a short haircut which was not typical of women at the time and wears her pantsuit with pride.
Hammer of the Witches
36” x 42”
Woodcut on paper
The Malleus Maleficarum (translated as Hammer of Witches) was a guide written in 1486 by German Catholic clergyman Heinrich Kramer and provided a guide for hunting and persecuting witches.
This woodcut is filled with symbolism such as the apple, which alludes back to Eve, and the rope and water, which served as tools of persecution.
The moon and the repeating motifs in the border represent Hecate, who was the goddess of the night, magic, and witchcraft, and the feather boa symbolizes the witch’s familiar. Also present is the literal inclusion of the hammer itself, that She now wields.
