The Ohio Artist Registry (OAR) is an exciting opportunity for artists to share their work, connect with the creative community, and establish an online presence—all on a free, virtual platform! The OAR encourages artists working in all art forms, throughout Ohio and beyond, to create a profile, which allows them to better promote themselves and their work. Being listed in the OAR provides artists with new opportunities to share their work with clients, galleries, patrons, and audiences. A listing in the OAR does not confer an endorsement, approval, or verification by the Ohio Arts Council.
For more information, contact Kathy Signorino, artist programs director, at kathy.signorino@oac.ohio.gov or 614-728-6140.
2025 Ohio Artist Registry Juried Exhibition
Bio
Darlene Yeager-Torre is an award-winning fine art photographer best known for her painting-with-light work. When not out in the field at night lighting large landscapes with handheld lights, she can be found in her darkened studio experimenting with and inventing techniques for her still life tableaus. Currently Darlene is also working in the alternative photographic process of cyanotype as well as photo encaustics. She recently received a grant from the Greater Columbus Arts Council (GCAC) to continue her experimental work.
In addition to solo and two artist exhibits, Darlene’s work has been juried into and exhibited in national and international exhibits including at the Butler Art Institute, the Attleboro Arts Museum, the Center for Fine Art Photography, f/Stop Magazine, Black Box Gallery, Praxis Gallery, and the Julia Margaret Cameron International Awards. Her luminous photographs have also been featured in books and magazines.
Darlene is a member of the Worthington Area Art League, the Ohio Art League, and an Active Art member of the National League of American Pen Women (NLAPW) and the Central Branch of NLAPW where she has served as branch president, vice president, treasurer, and art credentials officer. At the national level she served as the art editor for the award-winning magazine, The Pen Woman, and as National Arts Credential Officer.
Artist Statement
As a fine art photographer, encaustic artist, and alternative photography practitioner, Darlene is inspired by the beauty that light brings to both natural and manmade environments. She specializes in painting-with-light in varied settings from night landscapes to tabletop arrangements created in her darkened studio. Although light is the essence of all photography, Darlene’s work differs in five significant ways:
- She works in front of the camera instead of from behind it,
- The exposure times are extremely long (from seconds in the studio to minutes for landscapes),
- The images, created in nearly total darkness, only appear when light is introduced,
- Colors, shapes, and lines may be added with unique techniques developed by her through experimentation.
- Everything that transpires during the exposure and is lit appears in the work.
“Painting with light” seemed like a misnomer to Darlene because painting implies creating shapes, lines, & textures. A photographer works in terms of color, contrast, and tone. Of course, composition is the backbone of work in any medium. Darlene decided to see how far she could take the idea of painting with light in photography. Her brushes became lights of different strengths and colors. She discovered different ways of moving the light cold make calligraphic-type lines. Darlene then began to modify colored light sticks with black wrap and black tape to add dimension, textures, and shapes to her work.
For landscapes, using traditional techniques still seem the best way to paint with light. Only once did she need to “draw” along a long path. For that she invented and built rolling lights. That work was published in a book about Ariel Foundation Park in Mt. Vernon Ohio. Darlene has found that, with carefully placed shadows she can best create scintillating landscape images.