Early life

Born Diana Hansen in Bellingham, Washington

Bellingham, Washington

Bellingham is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Whatcom County in the U.S. state of Washington. It is the twelfth-largest city in the state. Situated on Bellingham Bay, Bellingham is protected by Lummi Island, Portage Island, and the Lummi Peninsula, and opens onto the Strait of Georgia...

 in 1947, she was the eldest of 6 children born to Audrey and Wally Hansen. Of her childhood there, she says "I was born into a community of depressed, Mormon Swedish farmers, who put away winter black on Memorial Day in favor of summer navy blue."

In 1964, in high school, she wrote a musical

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 that had a full production. She realized then that she wanted to write musical theatre, but it was a while before she returned to her calling.

Painting

In 1966 she moved to Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

. Enamoured by the color and warmth of the islands, she made her home there, and was followed shortly by her parents and siblings. In 1968, ran for the State Constitutional Convention. She won a seat by 93 votes. Her campaign platform was noted for being down-to-earth; her mother Audrey stood by the highway, waving, holding a sign that read "Mothers For Diana." Diana followed up by standing by the highway with her two Great Danes, waving with a sign that read "Dogs For Diana." She went on to run for the Hawaii State House of Representatives, and won a seat there, but lost a Congressional race, after which, she says, "I was unemployable."

Taking scraps of canvas or matting from her parents' frame shop, she started painting scenes of Diamond Head

Diamond Head, Hawaii

Diamond Head is the name of a volcanic tuff cone on the Hawaiian island of Oahu and known to Hawaiians as Lēahi, most likely from lae 'browridge, promontory' plus ahi 'tuna' because the shape of the ridgeline resembles the shape of a tuna's dorsal fin...

 with various combinations of waves, rocks, and palm trees, and sold them on the roadside to make a living.

One day, she painted a painting of a Hawaiian woman in front of Diamond Head and the painting sold within 5 minutes. She continued painting Hawaiian women for the next 25 years, and her business grew from a roadside stand into a gallery

Art gallery

An art gallery or art museum is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art.Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection...

. Her art could be found on mugs, calendars, cards, clothing, and perfume. She wrote and illustrated four art and prose coffee table book

Coffee table book

A coffee table book is a hardcover book that is intended to sit on a coffee table or similar surface in an area where guests sit and are entertained, thus inspiring conversation or alleviating boredom. They tend to be oversized and of heavy construction, since there is no pressing need for...

s, and sold over three hundred thousand prints and 150,000 mugs (through Jack in the Box, JC Penney, Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...

, and QVC

QVC

QVC is a multinational corporation specializing in televised home shopping. Founded in 1986 by Joseph Segel in West Goshen Township, Pennsylvania, United States, QVC broadcasts in five countries as QVC US, QVC UK, QVC Germany, QVC Japan and – QVC Italy to 200 million households...

).

Her art supported her family and their farm

Farm

A farm is an area of land, or, for aquaculture, lake, river or sea, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibres and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single...

. In 1979, she married Gordon Young (later divorced), and her daughters, Heidi and Thekla, were born in 1980 and 1981, respectively. The family lived on a farm in Kahalu'u on the island of Oahu, and Diana expanded her publications to include 10 children's books about the farm, known as Mango Hill, and the fictional adventures of the animals there. They had many pets (horses, dogs, cats, chickens and peacocks) and the farm became known as a home for stray or unwanted animals. Roosters who had lost fights were left at the farm, and an orphaned mongoose was lowered over the fence in a cat carrier.

Playwright

During this time, despite her success as an artist, Diana had been writing plays, novels, short stories, and songs. However, she never submitted the manuscripts, focusing on the career that was providing for her family. But painting was not her calling, and in 1996, she developed severe arthritis

Arthritis

Arthritis is a form of joint disorder that involves inflammation of one or more joints....

 in her right arm and hand, and could no longer hold a paint brush. She took this as a sign that painting was no longer right for her.

That same year, in a waiting room, she opened a magazine to a page with an ad for the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

's (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. She applied, and despite not having a college degree, she was accepted.

She closed her business, rented her farm, and moved with her daughters to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. Diana met Brian Feinstein in the graduate program, where they collaborated on many songs and short musicals, finally writing the musical Mimi Le Duck

Mimi le Duck

Mimi le Duck is a musical with book and lyrics by Diana Hansen-Young and music by Brian Feinstein. Mimi Le Duck premiered at the Adirondack Theater Festival in 2004, followed by a run at the Fringe Festival that same year. The musical opened on November 6, 2006 Off-Broadway at New World Stages...

, starring Eartha Kitt, which opened at the New World Stages on November 6, 2006 and closed on December 3, 2006, after 58 performances. Diana has been a published member of Mystery Writers of America since 1979 and has written numerous short mystery stories, and is currently writing and living in Brooklyn with two cats, Jaws and Smudge.

External links

• Diana Hansen-Young website