Diana's Creative Process

Diana Al-Hadid uses many different mediums and processes to create her artwork which consists mainly of sculptures. She doesn’t start with one idea and work until the artwork in front of her is exactly as she first pictured it. When it comes to composition and her process, she keeps it very flexible. It changes as she works and incorporates fluctuating decisions and ideas into the piece. Her works always start digitally, as a collage of different images. When it comes to choosing photos, Diana usually references topics like her Middle Eastern background and European art history. Some examples of the images she uses when making her collages are paintings she likes, photographs of herself, places she visits, and the interior of her studio. Diania doesn't always know much about the images she chooses to incorporate into her collages. If she likes the composition of a piece, she’ll take what she wants from it. Diana has said “I kind of just steal the compositions like, the bare, skeletal, faintest…but I obliterate everything else.” When she has a complete image that she likes she projects it onto a large wall and paints out the collage. Every stroke in the painting is then backed with a mix of gypsum, fiberglass, and plaster. Diana keeps all of her strokes very loose. She lets the paint drip and details be obscured. The result of this being that her pieces have an incredible amount of movement. Once the painting has been backed and has dried, it is peeled off the wall. Instead of being a flat painting, her pieces have transformed into dimensional and textured sculptures.