by Ashley Hunter
Sculpture was Diane Sams’s first love of the arts, but it was far from her only artistic endeavor.
For over 30 years, Sams has been involved with LeMoyne Arts, either through hosting shows and galleries or the yearly creation of the LeMoyne Arts Holiday Show ornament.
“LeMoyne has always been good to me,” Sams said, although it is undoubted that the loving relationship between artist and gallery has gone both ways through their years of cooperation and connection. This year, Sams is again behind the gallery’s annual ornament offering; it is her 32nd metal-sculpted ornament for the art gallery.
When approached in the early ’90s to make an ornament as a fundraiser for LeMoyne, Sams says she was only too pleased to accept the request. For the first decade, she donated the ornaments entirely to LeMoyne. “It was a way to give back,” Sams said.
Today, Sams maintains her own pewter foundry. At the height of her career, she operated a commercial art business that allowed her to support nonprofits and artistic organizations near to her heart, such as LeMoyne.
Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but raised for several formative years of her life in Venezuela, Sams grew up surrounded by the arts. Art had always been influential in her life. She recounts her years in a Catholic boarding school as a child. When she was tasked with writing book reports, Sams turned to art to seek a creative way out of penning her report.
“In eighth grade, the only way I got out of English — because I did not like to read at the time — was to do drawings for my book report,” said Sams. While her creativity (or her comics about the nuns) was not popular with her teachers, she said it did give her enough credit to get out of writing the report.
Some of her first experiences with art as a career began in the streets of Torremolinos, Spain, where her family resided in her late teen years. At age 18, Sams found herself among a handful of Torremolinos’ artists who sold art, music, and sweets downtown to tourists. “I learned to use the palette knife in Spain, and I painted murals on patio walls,” said Sams.
Her global experiences broadened Sams’s idea of art, providing her with the framework for what would eventually be her lifelong endeavor. “Other cultures have a whole different outlook on life than we have,” said Sams. “Their customs, their food, everything is different, including art.”
After a childhood overseas and dabbling in the arts, Sams returned to the United States as a young adult, seeking a practical job. After arriving back in Baton Rouge, Sams became a dental technician, although the career was short-lasting since the call of the arts was too great to resist. Having a male dental technician offered a greater salary than she had been provided the final push.
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