Who is Donald G.

   Born in Baltimore in 1969, I was encouraged to explore my desire to draw from the young age of 6. My mother would provide me with paper and pencils from the office she worked at and ask me to draw various objects and show them to her. I began my formal training at Cardinal Gibbons High School under the extremely critical eye of the man who helped shaped my idea of what it meant to be an artist, my art teacher Dr. Frank Katz. It was Dr. Katz who told me that no matter what I chose to do in life I would never feel complete unless it involved my artistic talents. 

   Dr. Katz encouraged me to further my education at the Maryland Institute College of Art. The time at M.I.C.A. was spent studying the theory of art and how it relates to the world around us. I was one of two M.I.C.A. students awarded a Baltimore City Council grant to travel to Greece where I was taught to paint the majestic Greek landscapes. Although I learned much in school and  enjoyed the insight of the instructors I grew disillusioned with art as a career so I left M.I.C.A. Unfortunately, in those days, there wasn't much in the school curriculum on making a living as an artist. Still with the knowledge  gained from both teachers and fellow students I went on a journey of exploration for myself and my art. 

  For several years I did what I felt I had to do to survive, most legal some not so much. To this day I draw on what I term my “reckless years.” With the desire to peer deeper into humanity and needing a steady paycheck I became a firefighter in Montgomery County, MD.  During my 20 years as a firefighter, I was able to study how people relate to life's trials and heartaches. I was witness to triumphs of courage as well as the desperation of the forgotten and ignored. Through it all I explored other ways to draw, paint and sculpt. Beginning with tattooing, transitioning to airbrushing, and landing in leather tooling. Now retired from Fire/Rescue, I've returned to my first love of drawing and painting. Through my work I explore not only the beauty of our world but also the problems in our society. “We need to see our incredible compassion along with the injustices, our propensity for love engulfed by our predisposition to fear...” My work will cause the viewer to ponder their own contribution to the human condition. “Everybody wants to be happy, what if instead of working on our own individual happiness we instead worked everyday to make a strangers life that much finer. Imagine if generations were brought up with this as their prominent goal... what a wonderful world this would be.”