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When Donna Dowless was a young girl, she loved watching her mother paint. “It gave her such a sense of serenity and peace,” she recalls. “I was drawn to that, and it started to call me as well. When I was 13, I said, ‘Mom, one day I’m going to go to art school and become an artist.’”
“I don’t paint to sell. I paint to love.” GROWINGBOLDERMAGAZINE.COM
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Donna’s childhood dreams were put aside when, right out of high school, she landed a job in the entertainment industry. Inspired by the prospect of working with some of the world’s most renowned creative artists, she put aside art school and began a career running major sports and entertainment venues. She met the Beatles and worked with some of the most inspirational figures in sports, such as Vince Lombardi when he coached the Washington Redskins and Ted Williams when he was general manager of the Washington Senators. But it was a conversation Donna had with pop art icon Andy Warhol in the early ‘70s that planted the seeds of her artistic rebirth: “I told him I wanted to become an artist and he said, ‘You don’t become an artist; either you are one or you aren’t. Are you an artist? If you are, then be an artist.’ I didn’t act on his advice immediately, but I knew then that one day I would pick up a paint brush and go.” But that day wouldn’t come until decades later. In the meantime, despite lacking a college degree and working in what was then a male-dominated industry, Donna flourished, eventually becoming executive vice president of Ticketmaster. Still, she never forgot Warhol’s words. “I think we all have certain things that call us,” she says. “I believe my calling has always been to be an artist, to go for it.” At the peak of her corporate success, Donna went for it, saying goodbye to the career that had defined her for four decades and answering the voice that had been calling her for even longer. She began to paint; first for herself, then for friends and finally for galleries. Totally self-trained, Donna uses ink, pencil, acrylics, oil pastels and found objects — anything that catches her eye and pleases her fancy. And forget the stereotype of the tortured artist; her creative process is less a struggle than a love fest. “My art just happens,” she says. “It flows out of my GROWING BOLDER
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4/29/13 4:19:19 PM