Donna Talerico

Donna Talerico’s story as a painter started nearly 40 years before she was born. Her maternal grandmother, Hélèna Daming, came from Luxembourg to Matewan, West Virginia, a 1919 war bride. Two generations later, Hélèna’s stories of her cultured youth in Europe, with beautiful phrases in French, Flemish and German, took Donna far away from Matewan.

With the ink still wet on her degree in marketing, Donna headed for the “big city” of Cincinnati. She was an assistant buyer, copywriter and display artist in department stores before settling into a comfortable niche as a retail fashion illustrator, a job that would pay the bills for the next 20 years. Like magic, at a 1998 workshop in Sorèze, France, Donna Talerico's life as an artist turned to color. On that fateful trip, the caps came off the tubes, and Donna has been painting full-time ever since.

Her most satisfying work is unrestrained, with bold color and gestural brushstrokes. "I paint intuitively, almost impulsively, celebrating the shapes and patterns of color and light I seewithin any subject matter, says Donna. "Exploring this borderland between representation and abstraction is a continuous challenge and source of fascination".