'Donna Williams', The Artist

To all my art appreciators and buyers since I began first giving my art away in 1991, and finally selling it since 2005.  This year, in Sept 2016 I learned my breast cancer treated in 2011 had become metastatic and spread to my liver and spine.  Metastatic cancer is not a curable situation.

On 28th Feb I learned no further chemo would have any chance of working for me and I had around 8 weeks left to live, probably of which 4 weeks would be reasonable quality time.

I want to thank you all for allowing me to share my life with you all in so very many ways.  You gave me purpose, passion, belief in myself, you stretched my skills, and often collectively your belief in me since 1991 made me into a greater teacher, consultant, artist, person.  I cannot thank the world enough for all it allowed me to share with it.  It truly gave me 'a life'. 

As such, I wanted to thank you all for allowing me to share my art with you. 

Thank you too to over 300 art purchasers around the world who welcomed my art into their homes, their hearts, and sometimes their galleries.  The more you all believed in my art, the more of it I created and spoke through.  This art journey was the bridge between my waking and dream worlds, my autistic world and my transition to a place of relative equality in the mainstream world, my journey told through art.  

I have no original paintings available for sale, though prints of my art will continue to sell Red Bubble at the link you'll find here and I hope you all continue to enjoy it, find yourself in it and through it.  Then I know I live on through my art.  

If you are seeking permission to use an image of one of my art works you can use existing internet images of my artwork at no cost under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License as long as I am credited as the artist and I would ask that my husband, Chris Samuel, to be informed of any such use so he has a chance to experience the use of my work. 

If you are a publisher seeking a high resolution image for use in a publication you can approach Chris with your request and he may set a cost for this.  Be patient in this case as it may take some time for him to respond.

Creative Commons License

Sincerely, Polly Samuel (aka 'Donna Williams')

I have sold over 300 original paintings which have gone all around the world as well as having been exhibited in New York, Beijing and Hong Kong. 

From Here You Can:

  • <link 33>EXPLORE PAINTINGS & PHOTOGRAPHY</link>
  • <link 34>EXPLORE SCULPTURES</link>

 

What people say about Donna's art

"Donna Williams' is an artist in ways that are incomprehensible to most. She epitomizes the word ART, as she is a master work in and of herself". - Natalie "NMW" , USA

"Donna is a talented Artist with a capital "A". I had the pleasure to work with her on many different projects.  Her stunning and uncompromising approach to creativity, is a breath of fresh air of a multi faceted talented complete Artist". - Serge Conein, Serge Fine Arts, UK

"She is a hugely original and inventive artist. I am constantly impressed by her capacity to create and communicate in so many different ways". - Lucy Paplinska, Documentary Filmmaker, Humming Films (AUS)

"Donna has developed the ability to convey an inner mythology, inner culture, through many different "voices" and forms of media. Certain of her paintings hit me at a gut level; some are mysterious and hide their message, but they have this in common: they are expressions of an ethereal beauty -- as if they were messages from fairies".  - Jillian Parker

"Donna Williams is a prolific mastermind of masterpieces!  Most people are familiar with her books. I am on a mission to let people know that Donna not only writes poetically, but is a recording artist and an extraordinary painter. HBO where are you?“ We need to educate the masses!" - Dr. Rosa C. Martinez, Strokes of Genius - President

 

Artism?

I refer to my prolific creativity as my ARTism.  My use of the word 'ARTism' came from my description of the relationship between autism and art and I've been using the term since 2000.

Whilst savant artists like Stephen Wiltshire or Ping Lian Yeak specialise in architectural works, my work, like that of Christophe Pillault is both figurative and faceless but also Expressionist in style and like all three my artistic abilities emerged suddenly and without formal training. 

The figures in my works commonly reflect my experiences of faceblindness, the isolation of my first 9-11 years of severe meaning deafness and not having functional speech until 9-11 yrs old and how this shaped my personality and solitude.  The backgrounds commonly reflect the context blindness of my first 30 years of meaning blindness. 

Other works have themes associated with the chronic fight-flight of Exposure Anxiety, with dissociation, compartmentalisation, thinking in systems and movement, being solitary, the importance of texture to a physical thinker, thinking in pattern, theme and feel and relying on sensing. 

Progressively when my cancer mutated after 5 years and I was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in Sept 2016, my art expressed my spirituality as an atheist, as a Taoist and someone guided by these and Buddhist principles.  This spirituality helped me in my journey from resident to tourist to the waiting room, the corridor and finally to the bus stop, which is a metaphoric explanation of facing and walking with grace and gratitude, laughter and love to my transition in leaving the body to live on on all who remember me in their hearts and minds.

 

Acquiring art works

GIFT SHOP A selection of my works are available on T Shirts, iPad and iPhone covers, cushions, totes etc over at Red Bubble at affordable prices.  You can browse these here.