Dyana Hesson

Wild Arizona -Native Arizona Plants and Places Exhibit


One Woman Show

Arizona Sonora-Desert Museum

October 3-December 7, 2025

Arizona Cornucopia Dyana Hesson

Botanical artist Dyana Hesson loves a good adventure. “I simply can’t get enough of Arizona; its sun on my face, its dirt under my feet, its colors on my pallet. The Grand Canyon state has been generous with inspiration for my many years as an artist, and I’m just getting started. There’s always more to explore around the next bend.”

Driven by curiosity and discovery, Hesson is on a mission to paint every wild Arizona plant she can find. Beyond the attention-grabbing prickly pear and saguaro, she also loves painting the little plants and blooms found in Arizona’s backcountry. Placing her subjects in the landscape helps her collectors feel the moment of discovery, and thus enter into the adventure.

Hesson’s desire is to exhibit some of Arizona’s most unique plants and blooms from every corner of our great state, and to compel her audience to care for the natural world. “It’s an epic story I want to tell, and I’m excited to tell it. If you want to really understand the wild west, study the wildflowers.”

Wild Arizona will celebrate her thirty-five years as a painter, unveiling the largest collection of her works seen publicly in years. Highly collected, Hesson’s show will feature works from private collections, but also unveil several available works which her public highly anticipates.

The Arizona Sonora Desert Museum’s Ironwood Gallery will host Dyana’s exhibit reception on October 3rd, 2025 from 3:00-6:00 PM. At 1:00 PM Hesson will deliver her talk, Wild at Art, sharing her creative process through stories, photos and videos. The one-hour talk will be followed by time for questions and a “The Art of Wildflowers” book signing in the museum.

Hesson is represented by Bonner David Galleries, Scottdale, Manitou Galleries, Santa Fe, and Madaras Gallery, Tucson. See more work at DyanaHesson.com.

About the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum:

The Art Institute at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum offers art education, exhibitions, and stewardship of the museum’s collection to promote conservation of the Sonoran Desert. Founded in 1952, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is a 98-acre nonprofit institution in Tucson, AZ, integrating a zoo, botanical garden, art institute, and natural history museum. For information about this exhibition, visit the website www.desertmuseumarts.com or call 520-883-3024.

Dyana Hesson

Dyana was born in 1966 in the Gold Country of California. There she was always happiest outdoors. Her weekends were spent visiting the local nursery and working on the natural landscaping of her family’s home. When she was 12, her father gave her a camera. She began photographing all that was interesting to her; the trees, the flowers, and the natural landscapes.

After a short stay in Southern California (where she met and married her husband in 1985), she moved to Arizona. Although the climate and landscape varied drastically from that of California, the inspiration did not.

Dyana became interested in painting as a way to express things that she couldn’t through a lens alone. She chose oil as her medium because it possessed a fluid quality perfect for the subjects she was painting. She began to experiment with thin layers of carefully blended paint, and the results were luminous. She earned her degree in Art at Arizona State University in 1991 and graduated Magna Cum Laude. After a four year detour to southern Michigan, Dyana and her family returned to Arizona. She continues to live in Mesa with her husband Randy, daughter Sydney and Dog Boon.

Dyana is always in search of her next painting. She takes long hikes in the desert and mountains, and frequently visits botanical gardens across the country. She feels she has the most success when she has the luxury of bringing her subjects home. She then has more time to study them and combine them with other elements. Using only natural lighting in her paintings, timing and weather are always factors.

Dyana is most excited about using her art to glorify God by drawing attention to His creation. She feels that the relationships and opportunities to serve with her art have been the most valuable aspect of her career.

Dyana is a proud to be a Signature Member of American Women Artists, Founding member of the Phoenix Zoo Art Committee, and Phoenix Home and Garden Magazine Master of the Southwest, 2017.

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