Low Down Articles
Artist Profiles - Diane Lemire
Article 36 of 73
From the book Artists of the Gatineau Hill by Catherine Joyce. This article first appeared in the "Artist Profiles" column in the October 18, 2006 issue of the The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
Reprinted with permission. Search complete list of Low Down Articles.
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Such a Long Journey
Through art we come to know ourselves. By casting a net out into the darkness of the unknown, the artist draws into the light the mystery of her own being. Things stand forth with a clarity that only time and a long journey can reveal. Diane Lemire, sculptor and painter, is one of those artists whose work bears witness to the enduring imprint of a life fiercely lived.
Born in Val d'Or in northern Quebec, the seventh of ten children, Diane grew up in Timmins where her father was a miner and her mother a resourceful woman who could turn her hand to anything. In their small house, one room was always kept for crafts where materials spilled forth to create carpets, blankets, clothes. On Sundays her father would take the family to see the bears at the dump where Diane would find treasures to spark her creative imagination. Every Christmas she would make special cards for family and friends, each one unique - a three-week tradition that she continues to this day.
By 1978, in search of a wider world, she was on the road to Ottawa for what would prove a decade of travel and adventure. Cycling through Europe, living on a kibbutz in Israel, working for two years with Katimivik, and two more with Outward Bound, out-tripping during the summers, ski patrolling through the winters, she became an iron woman, soon competing in triathalons. "For years I never had a place to live. I carried everything I owned in a backpack on my bike."
Diane loved to learn but, from childhood, reading and writing had never come easily. "I never gave up. I got a college degree in social work when I was young but I wanted more. I worked in admissions at Ottawa U for years but I wanted to be an artist. Finally in 1999 I achieved my Fine Arts degree and then my Education degree. I met wonderful people along the way who helped me to realize my dream. I always knew there was an archive inside me that one day I would tap."
That day has finally come. From her clifftop eerie, looking straight down the Gatineau River with a heart-stopping view of the hills, Diane now creates full-time. In one of those mysterious conjunctions of art and life, her work has found its ideal expression. Her paintings and sculptures mirror the polar aspects of her journey: strength and vulnerability. She etches on slate the images that formed her - a small cottage clings to the shore, a line of clothes flaps in the wind, the sky is awash with northern light. Her sculptures wed cement and lace - an armoured exterior protects the delicate fabric of an interior story.
"Life is a process. Art is a process. All the years that I trained now enable me to do these sculptures. Art carries my language. It is a place where I can talk about myself through material, not words. It gives me a reading on who I am.
"This is where I belong. It's all come together - all those memories, that intense emotion, all those years in the bush, the loneliness and the uncertainty. Now I can create beauty out of what was so hard. Through art I cherish my life."