Donahue shares her art inspiration

Mary P. Donahue, visual and performing arts professor, spoke about her life, travels, and landscape art at the second-to-last Tapestry event for the season in the basement of the Chadron Public Library from 2-4 p.m. Saturday.
Donahue showed a slideshow presentation, titled “Landscape, Place, and Art,” about her art and some of the inspirations and history behind her work. Her fascination with landscapes and capturing them on paper and canvas began in her childhood. She spent much of her time playing outside, which “sort of grew into this love of exploring,” Donahue said.
Donahue spent part of her childhood in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where she drew some inspiration from Grant Wood, an artist famous for the painting “American Gothic,” who was a local of Cedar Rapids. At the presentation, she had a plant on display that was started from the model plant used for one of Wood’s other paintings, “Woman with Plants.”
As she grew older and began to visit different mountain ranges, Donahue began to use her artwork as a way of “trying to make sense of where I am,” and was drawn to rocky, mountainous terrain. Much of her presentation also focused on cairns, man-made rock formations that are found in many cultures across the planet and which have a variety of practical, spiritual, and artistic functions. Cairns and other simple artwork, such as painted handprints and cave-wall drawings found all over the world, are part of what Donahue describes as an “impulse for art” that humans have had as far back as anyone can seem to trace.
Donahue also brought a few pieces of her landscape artwork for display during the presentation. Around 15 people attended.