Donald was born in 1984, in Des Moines, Iowa to a Jewish mother and a Catholic father. He grew up in Southern California and has lived all over the country; from New York City and Miami, Florida, to rural Appalachian Kentucky and West Virginia. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Kentucky, and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Florida. He now resides in the Chattanooga, TN area with his wife and son, where he serves as Associate Professor of Art at Southern Adventist University.
Donald’s artwork has been exhibited at the Painting Center in New York City, The Huntsville Museum of Art in AL, Catskill Art Society in Livingston Manor, NY, Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati, OH, The Wiregrass Museum of Art in AL, Main Street Arts in Clifton Springs, NY, LexArts in Lexington, KY, Florida State University, University of Florida, Dogwood Arts in Knoxville, TN, and more. His work has been published in several of Manifest Gallery’s respected books including the International Drawing Annual (10 and 12) and the International Painting Annual 9, Fresh Paint Magazine, and various exhibition catalogs.
Donald’s artwork consists of oil paintings and mixed media drawings. Subject matter is usually contrasting elements of architecture and tangled structures that are being built up, torn down, or otherwise in a state of flux. These forms are illuminated with a dramatic chiaroscuro or colored light, with occasional landscape or figurative additions. Often the works explore the areas between drawing and painting, digital and traditional painting, and formalistic abstraction and representational images.
Through these works and forms, Donald seeks to express the contradictions and aspirations of his identity, faith, life experience, personal and universal histories.