Meet Diane Gelman

We recently connected with Diane Gelman and have shared our conversation below.

Diane, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.
It took me a long time to gain confidence in myself and my artwork. I started out fairly confident when I began my long journey to becoming an artist. I was trained in Food and Nutrition previously and had a long career in Food before transitioning to becoming an artist. I started by randomly painting about 60 vegetables in my kitchen with no training and discovered that I liked to paint. I went to a local community college and took Painting 101 courses for 3 years. We moved and I switched to taking painting classes at an art school. I went from feeling fairly confident that I had some talent and ability to feeling like I had no talent at all. I was surrounded by superstars it seemed to me. Still, I stuck with studying art, eventually graduating about 10 years later. By then I started regaining some limited confidence. I talked my way into having a solo show at an area restaurant and sold a surprising amount of work. Then I found a roommate and studio and started making art full time. It was just as a teacher had suggested early on, that we students needed to just make art. The more art you make the better you get. I gradually recognized my voice and regained my confidence by working hard at it all of the time..

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I specialize in Food based artwork. I have long been food obsessed. Before finding myself as an artist, I earned a master’s degree in Nutrition and had a long career relating to food, in various capacities. It was only natural that I would focus on food in art as well. Food is a basic human necessity, but its’ significance transcends mere sustenance. Food maps who we are and where we’ve come from. The taste or smell of food is a universal emotion across all nationalities and cultures. Food is a symbol of hospitality, social status, and is a source of joy and celebration. We all connect with food.

I am really excited that a series of 6 of my candy-focused mixed media paintings are going to be shown at Red Dot Miami during Art Basel week by ADC Fine Art Gallery. My work has universal appeal and creates collective delight in all who see it. I hope that my work will cause a sensation and will all sell.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Determination, Hard work, and Competitiveness have driven me to keep making work, getting better at it, and applying to endless shows and trying to take advantage of every opportunity that I come across

How would you describe your ideal client?
I was found by an ideal client about 3 years ago. At first she’d contacted me about a painting she thought about buying that she’d seen on display. She did not followup and I did not hear from her until about a year later. She called to ask if I remembered her and to discuss a new concept that she had in mind. It turned out that she had recently moved into a new home and had my work in mind for a project in her Butler’s Pantry, a small room, off of her kitchen. I went to meet her the next day and look at the space and toured the rest of the amazing art in her home. This Butler’s Pantry was a small room with cabinets above and below and a countertop on 2 of the 3 sides with a narrow strip of wall running between upper and lower cabinets. The third side was one long tall, wide wall, with no cabinets or countertop. We discussed what the client what the client had in mind. She wanted me to create a customized Patisserie to fill the entire wallspace of this room. It turned out that I was leaving for a planned trip to Alsace, France the next day. I took photos of patisseries throughout the trip, focusing on pictures of the desserts, the look of display windows, signs, and the look of the interior spaces. I sketched out a pastry shop scene on 3 large panels. The first panel – the right side wall – was all cakes, the middle wall was all pastries and tarts, and third wall was more of the same in a strip format, like the other walls. Atop the strip pastry display was a whole wall portraying a pastry shop display, complete with shelves and pillars, jars of jams, candies, and a 3 dimensional Macaron Tower. Atop this display was the sign Patisserie Larsen, the client’s last name. I brought the sketches to the client’s home and suggested that she live with them in her midst for awhile. We remet 2 or 3 weeks later and discussed the project some more. The client was extremely knowledgable, discerning with exquisite taste, and owns a photographic art gallery here. We discussed each panel and every element. Then I hired a carpenter to create the wooden panels and to plan out the eventual installation. We both came over to the house and discussed each and every element with the client. I was so intent on everything working flawlessly that I had the carpenter bring the completed panels to the home for a test run, literally hanging them, before I even began creating the project. The client was extremely involved in each meeting and the discussions and we collaborated on most every general aspect of the design. I worked out a bill and created a contract with the client, and received a deposit of half upfront. Then, the client left me totally free to create the piece with no supervision throughout the 10 month or so creation phase. I did send occasional pictures of the work in progress. We arranged an installation date, with the client and the carpenter to both be present. The installation was flawless and the cliet was thrilled. She had spoken at an earlier phase about hosting a reveal party to her friends and mine. The project was installed when we were still under the threat of covid so the party was not held. I told a friend about it, who suggested that I tell another friend who was the President of an art appreciation group at the Houston Holocaust Museum. She contacted the client and they hatched hosting a zoom interview showcasing my art installation and some of the rest of the client’s art collection. The Client loves the installation and was and is so thrilled with it. In the interview, she raves about the installation saying, “I love the sense of discovery that you have as you pass by – and then you want to take a closer look..” Larsen says, “I certainly had a vision of how it would appear in the space but Diane was able to take it and execute it to the next level”. It is completely wonderful and remarkable to me and she was definitely an ideal client.

Delicious, Zoom tour of my monumental commission, Patisserie Larsen to Art CircleHouston Holocaust Museum June 18, 2020 https://youtu.be/XKWEzHmtks

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Rick Wells, photographer

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