Deborah Donelson
Artist Statement

"For years my work has been guided by the core issues of identity and integration of the disowned elements in our nature. Essentially a quest for wholeness, this process has led me to explore our conditioned responses to gender, our notions of beauty and ugliness, our distinctions between normal and abnormal. I believe that these fixed concepts or judgments narrow our range of experience and limit our ability to both value and recognize in ourselves the stunning diversity of our existence.

I have always used the female figure as my primary image (perhaps but not intentionally an autographical device.) As with the paper dolls I made and adored as a child, I can dress this painted or drawn persona as my fantasy directs. I can push and pull at her features, mutate and mask and adorn her until she becomes something more inclusive, something "other," a being larger and more reflective of the unconditioned self.

I am also deeply drawn to animals. Their beauty of form and color, their outrageous self sufficiency, their mystery and otherness have inspired me for years. I feel that they hold a key to our ability to fully recognize ourselves. In my work I often combine human and animal attributes, creating a kind of metaphor for our larger, deeper selves. I think that we have a profound need to belong to the natural world.

Lately I have become quite concerned with our disregard for this natural world. Our relationship as a species to nature is profoundly dysfunctional. The destruction of wild lands, the extinction of so many birds and animals permanently damages our own souls. I mourn the loss of wildness, both in the world and within our communal spirit. I feel my work shifting, becoming more and more an expression of both concern and gratitude for the lives of wild creatures. The pieces here are the beginning of this new dialogue."

Deborah Donelson, 2006