Raised in a string of small Southern towns, Don is the child of a circuit-riding preacher and a nature-loving mother. His artistic eye and feeling for the moment are a tribute to the endless human stories he grew up seeing, hearing and living alongside these sensitive people. His love affair of creating with the camera began in college and, while interrupted by a couple of careers, has now been back in full force for over 20 years. The closest he has to a physical location he calls home is Conway, Arkansas, which he has now returned to after 16 other stops in between.
“A good story, like good art, engulfs the reader and makes them feel. Through the combination of composition, color, and light, endless
stories can be told that, hopefully, will make the viewer simply feel. My goal is to turn each photo into a story the viewer can read and feel.”
Don uses the camera lens to expose and embrace the beauty and rhythmic patterns often overlooked in the daily rush of life in his landscape pieces. In his conceptual work, he turns the lens inside his own mind and the draws from the words and thoughts of his models. With the raw image composition as the plot, he fleshes out the story line with color, texture and tone to highlight physical depth, and a giclee matte finish enhances this effect. He also uses resin on his higher end Signature Series to bring a brightness and pop to the images. All of his images are archival and don’t require glass, so hanging them in well lit ares is ideal and dramatic.
Vintage/antique and resurrected frames are a hallmark of his work. Don owned a custom frame shop for eight years and is a firm believer of matching the character of a one-of-a-kind frame with the essence of each image. Many times he will discover the frame first at a vintage or thrift store, then spend considerable time making sure he has the perfect image for the frame. The end result is each piece having an exclusive feeling and telling its own unique story for the viewer.
Don embraces the Georgia O’Keeffe quote: “I have found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way—things I had no words for.”
This is a partial inventory of current work and where it is located at. Please support local galleries and retailers who support local art! If you aren’t close to any of these, please contact me for possible shipping.
All images are giclee canvas prints printed by the artist unless otherwise noted. Artist Bio and Current DBA Inventory
