Having developed a love of music through the study of piano and violin, in Idaho, where she was born, Diana attended Oberlin College, in Oberlin Ohio majoring in English. In her first drawing class, under the instructor, Forbes Whiteside, she discovered the spaces between forms, which piqued her visual curiosity. The ability to make something visible, never before seen by anyone else, gave her an inner identification that was life changing. While music remained invaluable as a major part of her life, making the object of art became her focus, bringing her into a world that felt more of her own and less programmed by environment.

During the study of painting at The State School of Visual Arts in Frankfurt, Germany, where original etchings of Rembrandt and other Dutch masters were passed around the table for study and discussion, a much deeper appreciation for the processes of making art was being developed. At Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, she studies with the late James McGarrell and received a Master of Arts in Teaching. His encouragement and his emphasis on strong drawing ability was key to her interest in showing her work and in encouraging art in education.

The Art Students League in New York City provided the next stage in her development as a painter of the human figure. Edwin Dickinson’s masterful rendering of one focused-upon area next to another, combined with his open-minded conversation with avant garde artists was enlightening and inspiring. To be completely in charge of one’s subject matter, at the same time, inventing something new became her goal.

Diana has taught studio art, drawing, painting and art history in colleges in Kansas, at John Jay High School, Katonah, New York and at Tunxis University, Farmington, Connecticut. The need to expand her world of experience brought her to study commercial art at SUNY, Purchase, and at Parsons School of Design in New York City.

Her paintings and drawings have been shown at Silvermine Gallery, New Canaan, Connecticut, the Neuberger Museum, Purchase, New York, and the Washington Art Association, Washington Depot, Connecticut. Diana Windham, formerly know as Darlene Roth, had a retrospective show of her work at the Woodbury Public Library Gallery Space during the month of August, ’24. She also has added decorative wall painting to her repertoire of skills.