by Rachel Warren | photos by Stephanie Norwood
We all need our creative outlets. For Memphian Diane Thornton creativity is more than an outlet – it’s a way of life that is not only liberating but also vital to her health. Thornton is an activist, model, designer, actress and nonstop creative who is also living with early onset Alzheimer’s disease. For Thornton, plugging herself deeply into her creative pursuits and engaging in creative communities empowers her and helps her to ignite positive change. Furthermore, engaging in the world creatively is also one of the best medicines for the disease that affects Thornton’s day-today life.
“I like to think everything I do makes Memphis better one little drop at a time,” Thornton says. A committed activist, Thornton volunteers her time at several social service centers such as CHOICES: Memphis Center for Reproductive Health, Planned Parenthood and Tennessee Equality Project (TEP), of which Thornton’s wife, Ginger Leonard, is chair and president.
Activism has always been an important part of Thornton’s life. She says reproductive health justice was the first thing that got her involved in activism, citing Roe v. Wade and its aftermath as what inspired her to speak out about reproductive health, feminist and LGBT issues. Thornton spent time presenting on these issues at Texas Women’s University.
Thornton says she thinks of herself as more of an educator than an activist. She admits she has certain privileges that many do not have when it comes to getting a foot into the door of legislative change.
“I have white privilege. My face, my skin and my look gets me in, and I open my mouth and say things that people may or may not struggle to listen to. I am a lesbian but I don’t look like a lesbian to people. I have the privilege to go somewhere and speak and get to an audience that might otherwise not have listened.”
Modeling is also a large part of Thornton’s life. She got her start as a hair model and has also worked as a bra model. Today, she is an art model who models privately as well as with Memphis College of Art and Flicker Street Studio. She also founded Memphis Life Drawing, a group that brings local people together, professional artist or not, to draw with Thornton working as the model.
She says she hopes that the group provides a space for people who usually don’t allow themselves time to create. “I think being in a creative space has helped me maybe more than some of the medicine. I want to give that to other people,” she says, adding that modeling with Alzheimer’s means she must be very focused or she might lose where she is in a pose. For Thornton, Alzheimer’s means she must stay present, connect with the room’s energy and continually bring herself back to the now. She says this mental exercise has helped her stay focused and sharp in her daily life.
Thornton and her pup, Spirit, pose in her Midtown Memphis backyard. Thornton’s art fills the space, turning an urban plot of earth into both an outdoor art gallery and therapeutic outlet.
Thornton is also a talented designer who has participated four times as a designer for Condomonium, CHOICES’ annual fundraiser. The event brings local designers from all over Memphis together and gives them hundreds of condoms to create unique clothing made entirely out of condoms. Condomonium attendees and selected judges vote on their favorite creations. Last year, Thornton swept the competition with her ‘Starry Night’ condom dress creation; it won first place in the People’s Choice division. This year, Thornton has whipped up another spectacular design.
Thornton said a good friend challenged her to create men’s clothing. She took her friend on and made the friend, Jeremy Simmons, her model, crafting a “gender bender inclusive” design. She mentions, though, her design went through some changes after President Trump’s inauguration.
Thornton says, “Condomonium’s 2017 theme is ‘We’ve Come a Long Way, Baby.’ The election happened and everything got turned on its ear. I felt like, ‘I’ve come a long way and holy smokes what’s ahead of us?!’ So this positive, amazing design that I had created fell flat. It was a really involved concept. At that time, I think a lot of us experienced fatigue and maybe some situational depression. I wanted to simplify things.” Thornton eventually scaled down her design to one simply powerful statement of inclusivity.
Theatre troupe Friends of George’s is also a large part of Thornton’s life. The group pays homage to George’s Disco, a Memphis drag bar that closed its doors in the late 1980s. Friends of George’s celebrates that theatrical spirit of the closed venue and presents entertaining events and shows, each benefiting a different nonprofit. Thornton says she works as an actress with the theatre group. The group, Thornton says, has also given her support when she most needed it, making her feel beautiful, welcome and capable. She says that she has taken that same spirit and paid it forward, showering people she meets with compliments and positive words.
“I want to make people feel good because Friends of George’s has done that for me. Acting, modeling, and everything creative has done that for me, and I want to pass it all along.”
See Thornton’s CHOICES Condomonium design and the Condomonium winners on Facebook.
