Perhaps most of us hesitate to confront challenges in our lives. When we see a brand new opportunity that requires a break with the usual—the nine-to-five, the routine, the patterns that rubber-stamp us as similar to everyone else on the block—we back off. "Too risky," we think.
Not everyone shies away. A mature seminarian branches out by writing about his theology—and publication follows. A fifty-something commercial artist adds to his design output the creation of pagodas suitable for a mountain resort, and starts a movement. A painter’s penchant for total imaginative freedom, apart from convention or others’ avant-garde work, liberates and rewards her.
Just such an artist, Diane Clement, broke away from conventions and followed her passion—painting, unorthodox as to both media and techniques.
Although her finished works appeal to viewers and collectors in increasing numbers, she sets the greatest store by the process itself. The involvement in creating brings the satisfaction.
As she paints, a moment may arrive when she may suddenly "pour some … beer or wine onto the canvas to see what happens, or drench the canvas with H2O then add signwriters’ oil-based lettering enamel," all the while losing herself in the process.
"You get so involved in the creation of the piece that you forget you’re here, attached to earth, and yet you’re thankful you’re here all at the same time." It’s about the process—the creation of each piece in that moment. "Then it’s finished, and you know that, because it feels right. It feels finished."
Clement says that someone described her art as "freedom made visible." She "paints for the sake of painting," with "an idea for feel and color," but conscious of having no definite goal—not always a specific image in mind.
As the work progresses, the composition takes hold. She admits to "throwing" paint on her canvas, to having the liberty to "pursue my passions with this chaotic method of painting."
Her paintings do not end in chaos, but in energetic non-objective and abstract works with whirls of color and texture that are open to interpretation and to immediate visual satisfaction.
A long look at a previously untitled painting, which she named, on-the-spot, "Rare," might enrich for a viewer the next ocean tide observed. On the other hand, its diagonal movement and brilliant contrast of red and silver might spring the viewer into a purely aesthetic appreciation of the force exerted by intense red thrusts tempered by delicate sprays moving into opaque layers of silver. Either enhances the viewer’s image bank.
The newest and possibly the most unusual of Clement’s pieces are those she burns. Her initial intention for the Painting With Fire series was to achieve "heavy texture and something burnt."
She tried different surfaces and experimented with applying various media. "The first piece burned up completely. The second piece didn’t burn at all, and on the third piece, the fire just ‘moved’ the paint around. Cool, but not what I was looking for."
Now, the artist has found solutions: MDO wood, which does not burn completely, and liquid polyurethane—which she can move around as it burns—as a final coat. With applications of plaster, thick outcroppings of paint, and inlayed fragments of newspaper, the compositions proclaim the boldness of the artist and nurture the imagination of the viewer.
Clement, a native Virginian, threw paint at a basement wall when she was 14, and the pleasure of that escapade embedded itself in her mind. Her art ventures were calmer thenceforth. After business school and throughout years of clerical work, she turned out practical projects—interiors, murals, couture—then formed her own design company to give her art full-time attention.
In 2002, she turned to—or rather, she flung herself at—fine art, and has concentrated on the ubercreative ever since. When she says she paints "much like a maniac," she means every word. The question "Could you have accomplished what you have without your spirit of adventure?" brought a quick and unequivocal "No."
Clement has shared her expertise with wheelchair-bound patients, with Boy Scouts, and other receptive audiences. Her paintings appear in collections throughout Richmond, and she donates about six paintings each year to non-profits, including the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Approximately three of her smaller paintings will go to Australia in September. She will have a one-person show in Richmond in October, and her work is always on view at her home. Her Web site is www.dianeclement.com. FP
