Diane Fleisch Hughes is a mixed media painter and nationally board-certified art therapist based in the Cleveland, Ohio area. Her work explores the emotional and psychological impact of current events, using figurative imagery as a way to process collective experience.

Working intuitively, Diane combines realistic forms with expressive color, layered materials, and loose mark-making. Figures often emerge through revision and abstraction, reflecting uncertainty, vulnerability, and resilience. Rather than depicting specific events, her paintings focus on the feelings they leave behind—grief, tension, compassion, and the human need for connection.

Diane’s background in art therapy deeply informs her practice. She approaches painting as a therapeutic act and a form of inquiry, allowing the process to guide meaning rather than imposing a fixed narrative. The mixing of media and surfaces mirrors the complexity of emotional life and invites viewers to bring their own interpretations and responses to the work.

Diane has completed residencies at the New York Studio School and Wildacres N.C., and her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. She is the recipient of the Outstanding Applied Creative Practice Award from the American Art Therapy Association and multiple exhibition awards. In addition to her studio practice in historic downtown Willoughby, Ohio, she works as an art therapist and teaches at the graduate level.