Though Diane has been drawing since she can remember, when she was 14 yrs. old she threw paint (for the 1st time) on her basement walls. This act was not fully appreciated by her parents, so Diane continued to practice drawing realistic pieces and took art in middle school and high school, and even though the teachers were cool, the work was boring.
Life went on and Diane started a graphic arts/signage company, did a brief apprenticeship, learned to paint signs, learned to set type and with her natural design ability, worked that business for 15 years.
Diane retired that company to care for family, but after that 50th birthday in 2002, she took a window of opportunity to start painting, maybe as a career. Being self-taught, she did what she thought artists do, she painted, much like a maniac. She produced work so quickly and so prolifically that she had to get the masses of art out of her home in order to make room for the family! She rented a studio at a popular art center and the rest is history.
The rest, she blames on serendipity. People started buying and collecting her work immediately. Diane has participated in over 70 art shows; 30 juried and over 40 as the featured or solo artist. She considers herself lucky to have crossed that boundary from Outside to galleries. Her success has opened the door to being featured in articles in area newspapers and magazines in Richmond and the surrounding areas. Diane was invited to be a member of Metropolitan Richmond Artists Association and was invited to join a volunteer committee for Culture Works, Richmond’s new Art Council and hopes to be a voice for “Outsider Artists”. I hope to use my “success in galleries, and my experience to help bring more Outsider Artists to public view before they die or explode.
Art is about the process; from the first vision to my most recent experiments with painting with fire. I suppose that’s the unique beauty of an Outsider Artist…no boundaries! Incorporating materials and ideas that maybe are not, that happen to be around at that particular time and space, and no fear of using them, of putting them together during the process of creating that particular piece. It’s all fun, it’s all educational, it’s all beautiful. Abstract art gives you even more latitude for experimenting because you are not confined to an “expected” image.
Diane donates art to non-profit organizations; the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, schools, and assorted fund raising events for the Cure of Cancer and Cancer Research, etc. She has worked with Boy Scouts and with wheelchair bound people.
There is a web site www.dianeclement.com in place, but a new web site is being developed as we speak. Thank you for this opportunity. Greetings to all; be well and do your best everyday. . . even if you don’t think it is your best. . . it might be, that day.
