"Big Works on Small Paper"

"Since moving from Baltimore to New Mexico just over a year ago, I have woken daily to unflinchingly blue sky and the yellow sun spilling onto my backyard like a golden bath. Each day my heart rises to this light, drinking in its bright promise like morning tea. In New Mexico, I climb mountains and breathe the spiced desert air. I know boulders there which I love like family, their bellies smelling of the ancient earth; hummingbirds dine at my window and coyotes meet me on the trail. I love the dry desert air, the endless roll of sky, the big-ness of it all, and the tiny small-ness of myself.

But one thing I miss from this gray-eyed eastern town: the appreciation, loyalty, and support of my clients and friends here in Baltimore. It is because of you that I am able to live my dream of many years, using my talents to make images which affect people. I feel strongly that art is a tool to help us see more richly, more deeply, into the suspicious beauty and complexity of our humanity.

The fact that so many of you here in Maryland have responded over the years is a great affirmation as well as a privilege for me. I appreciate you all.

I have brought with me new drawings and prints, not so big and querulous as some of my paintings, but works I enjoyed creating. They feel bigger than their size all the same. So are we all bigger than the fragile flesh which contains us.

I do hope you enjoy my new efforts."

Deborah Donelson, September 2004