name: Traci Donahue
media: painting & mixed media sculpture
more: email Traci

Traci is a Northwest painter and sculptor. She graduated from the Art Institute of Seattle in 1990. Traci is the true definition of a mixed media artist. For many years her artistic journey focused mainly on ornamental, figurative painting with gouache-very detailed and ornate. Her early work was inspired by her favorite painter, Gustav Klimt, and her years designing textiles. She still incorporates ornamentation in her work now; it is the surface that is always changing.

In 2003, she met up with a few artists to start MOSAIC Arts Alliance, which eventually led to the opening of the Sixth Street Gallery. There she met new artists that both inspired her and encouraged her to try new media. Although the subject remained the same, the media began to change. From abstract acrylics, to fiber, to her current love for clay and plaster-the possibilities became endless.

Taking her work into a 3-D format has allowed her to express her love of humor, stories, and living creatures in a whole new way. She has found clay to be her most therapeutic medium, which has been very beneficial over that last year. Traci has found she can communicate in clay, what is sometimes too painful to speak. Although some pieces are very personal, most of her work is created to spark a smile and to remind us not to take life to serious.