The Arts Council of Preston County Spreading the Arts

Artist Spotlight: Donna Lohr

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Donna believes that God is a creator-God and that because she is created in His image, she is also a creator. This gift and the need to share it have led her into many different art forms.  After running through adventures in sewing, knitting, crocheting, embroidery, photography, watercolors, cut-paper collage, card making, scrapbooking, pottery and basket making, Donna's current expression of choice is contemporary felt folk art appliqué.

Donna's felt folk art appliqué creations are pure whimsy. They often begin with a well known phrase or saying that ends up being tweaked a bit. The whimsical woolie creature that ends up "personifying" the well know phrase is often a wonderful surprise because all too often her current art takes on a life of its own during the creation process. With only the sketchiest of ideas at the beginning of the process, it is a sort of magic how the creation happens. With each hand cut and sewn piece that is placed, the personality becomes more and more clear, but not until the last stitch on the last embellishment is it fully known. Even the most developed of ideas often take a turn of their own during the creation process and become something unplanned, but equally as lovely and loveable. Often, even when she thinks she has taken the last stitch, she finds that she can't put it down, and waits for what else is to be done.

As the emerging creature nears completion, Donna sits it somewhere so she will see it often for a few days until she knows it is complete or that she needs to add that one more little piece to make it complete. The final critique is when Donna smiles and joy is evident.

Donna has been the Featured Artist at MountainMade, in Thomas, WV, several times, most recently in January 2012.

She was voted as one of Tamarack's Top 15 Artists this spring and was mentioned in WV Living Magazine's summer issue. Donna will be the featured artist at the Preston Community Arts Center during September 2011.

As a very newly retired kindergarten teacher, Donna hopes to see her art continue to grow and maybe even teach a class or two.

Donna believes that art is to be beautiful, whimsical and fun!  Well... hers anyway!

If you need some whimsy in your world, contact Donna at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .



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