DIANE Durant grew up in a world of art—though that art was created with film crews and sets rather than paints and brushes. Her father cut film, while her mother was an actress and Goldwyn Girl, inspiring Durant to pursue a 40-year career in the film industry as a script supervisor.

Working on the film Real Steel in Detroit in 2010, Durant found herself compelled to explore another form of her own creativity when she saw Chun Hui Pak’s work on the walls at the Cobo Arena. “It stopped me,” she says. “Amid the chaos of a film life, that moment felt quiet, resonant. It was the first time I felt the pull to create something entirely my own.”

Since then, Durant has created an impressive body of work, honing an impressionist abstract style that allows her to express her emotions and moods in color that boldly reaches out from the canvas. “Color sets the emotional tone before anything else—before form, line or even intention,” she says. “The core part of my work, The Chaos Collection, is about movement and energy—pieces that invite you to feel the flow, the tension and the unexpected rhythms. It’s vibrant, alive and a little wild, like life itself.”