Today we’d like to introduce you to Alison Donaldson.
Alison, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Art has been ever present in my life for as long as I can remember. My mom was a textile weaver when I was young and she worked in all artistic mediums over the course of her life – watercolor, paper mâché, pottery and sculpting, acrylic and alcohol inks. She loved experimenting and learning to use new materials so I was constantly exposed to a wide array of artistic styles.
After an early career in marketing, I took the leap to stay at home and subsequently turned to art in my spare time. My boys were in a wonderful day school program at our church and they made piles and piles of artwork. I decided rather than keep all of their beautiful art in storage, I would try to create something new from pieces of it. After watching my mom weave both textiles and paper, I decided to cut strips of their artwork and weave them back together to hang in our home. This led to requests from friends to do the same – then evolved slowly until I found myself officially launching a small art business in late 2018. My first large-scale piece is a blue moose created entirely out of our boy’s artwork. In between early projects, I started teaching myself (and asking my mom for help) new mediums – acrylic, oil pastel, watercolor, alcohol ink, working with resin… the list is long. This experimentation led to creating my little 4×4 mini heARTs with a resin finish – which remains one of my most popular gift items. I took those mini heARTs and some poured acrylic ornaments and participated in my first local pop-up market.
In January of 2020, I donated a piece of art to Turn it Gold, a Houston area non-profit focused on fighting childhood cancer. The artists participating were simply asked to create a piece of art that would bring joy to children who were currently fighting cancer. This work, entitled “Heart City” was created out of hundreds of hand-cut hearts from leftover children’s art and my own original artwork. That project led to an interest in replicating the style, but I had to pivot and start using my own scraps of practice art to collage and create similar pieces. Each little step seemed to naturally lead to my next endeavor or introduce me to someone new who believed in my artwork.
The many months that Covid took over everything, I really turned my focus to creating larger abstract pieces. collages and weavings. I continued to participate in local markets in 2021 and started dreaming of the possibility of finding a studio space. I found that space in the fall of 2021, right before losing my mom to a stroke. It was almost as if she left me with an opportunity to be surrounded by other creatives and gave me a focus while I was mourning such an indescribable loss. I participated in my first Second Saturday in December of 2021. I love meeting new people every month and telling the story behind my artwork. Sawyer Yards is home to one of the largest creative collectives in the nation – it is such a special place unique to Houston.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Most definitely not an easy road – but I can’t imagine a different journey. There is no roadmap for starting and continuing to grow your own art business. It is a lot of ongoing learning and relearning the technical side (website, social media, taxes, photography, pricing and balancing life with my family). I have been so fortunate to meet artists along the way that have offered solid advice and continue to answer new questions that come up. I try to really focus on allowing for plenty of time to simply create without intention and work on new ideas.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am probably most known for my works that include paper collage weavings and my smaller mini heART gift pieces. I consider myself to be a modern collage artist – I love that when I watch people approach my artwork for the first time, they seem to be compelled to walk up and look very closely to try to understand the process. I am most proud of my larger scale weavings on canvas. I think these pieces really resonate because it truly has been a process of healing for me after losing my mom and it is a style that you don’t see very often. To me- the weavings really highlight how interconnected we all are and how we are stronger when we have others holding us up and connecting us to new people or ideas.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
My favorite thing about Houston is both the people and the food. No matter where you go in Houston or who you meet – you are bound to have overlapping friends or colleagues. Although I could live on queso and margaritas, when we do venture out – the food scene is never-ending. Always something new and different to try.
My least favorite thing – the traffic and the interstates. If I never had to get on a freeway again, I would be fine.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.alisondonaldsonart.com
- Instagram: @AlisonDonaldsonArt
- Facebook: @AlisonDonaldsonArt
Image Credits
Portrait Photography by Tasha Gorel https://www.natashanivanproductions.com
