Donna Letterese

Artist Statement

Donna Letterese

Bremerton, WA

Contact Information:
[email protected]

Instagram and Websites:
www.instagram.com/drawdvl
www.drawdvl.com
www.donnaletterese.com


Artist’s Statement and Bio:
I am an artist and educator who has split my life between the East and the West Coast. I love the ways in which the Pacific Northwest is entirely its own wondrous and unique place, while also having elements that call me back to the homes I've had before.

I grew up in the suburbs of New York City. For college, I chose to stay close to the general area where I’d grown up, and went to Sarah Lawrence. My junior year, I got the chance to study abroad for half the year at Goldsmith's College, University of London. That opened up my life to travel, theatre, and art, while reinvigorating my childhood love of reading and creating comics. After graduating from college, I moved to Los Angeles. I worked as a teaching artist at art centers and libraries, largely focused on Cartooning. I also made my own work, such as zines, art books, greeting cards, and minicomics. Pre-2020, I showed work at juried and group art shows and comic conventions, primarily in Southern California, but also in New York, Philadelphia, and Portland, Oregon.

I began my MFA in Illustration at California State University, Fullerton, in 2018. I’d planned to move to Washington upon graduation. However, I came up to stay during the March 2020 shutdown-- and when my university went virtual for the rest of my program, I essentially moved far earlier than I realized I would be able to.

Exploring the forests and beaches of my new home influenced my art a great deal, giving me comfort in my first two years here when more isolation being practiced. In October of 2021, I was lucky enough to have my final MFA show in person at Cal State Fullerton. My degree was conferred in January of 2022. Since then, I’ve finally gotten the chance to further explore my surroundings. Connecting with people in my community has been wonderful; as well as attending local art walks; taking the ferries between Bremerton, Port Orchard, and Seattle; exploring the many parks and gardens all around the Kitsap Peninsula; and continuously being inspired by the intertwining blend of nature and city life here. I love to illustrate all animals, but birds I have often gravitated back to recently in sketches. I’m very happy to have continued teaching Cartooning for L.A.'s Barnsdall Art Center via Zoom, and to have been working at Silverdale's Kitsap Art Center since February of 2023. At Kitsap Art Center, I teach Cartooning as well as other classes in the curriculum, online and in person.

In regards to my work, I believe that everything in life needs its counterpart in order to exist. And so, duality is something I explore. In comics and children’s illustration, I create stories and characters that are more stylized and sometimes fantastical. I’m exploring bringing together the more traditional rendering inherent in botanical illustration, with the more cartoony/experimental world of comic book/sequential art, and children’s books. Mediums such as accordion books and tunnel books help bridge this gap.

In my work overall, through the flora, fauna, characters, and narratives I create, I want to continue to create art that captures natural scenes and moments, and also narrative art that can explore the idea of finding one's self-- whether journeying through the wonderful or more solitary, solitary parts of life.