DONNA ROPPOLO

Donna Roppolo is a mixed media artist living in her hometown, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Interior Design.  While working for an architecture firm, she was drawn to expose her innate artist talent and pursue what became an extensive career in the decorative arts.  She later studied in New York, San Francisco and continued her education in Milan, Italy.  She became a successful painter of architectural decorations in a conventional manner. Her professional career included interior murals, custom furniture and gilded architectural surfaces. Donna’s passion for detail and love for refined materials strengthened confidence in exploring her vision and devoted herself into cultivating her fine art career.

Her process to paint modern flowers and butterflies is unique and laborious, working with various layers applied to fabric to create her own canvas.  “I have always been intrigued by the masters of the arts.  I am inspired by timeless interiors and fascinated with hand-painted Chinoiseries and frescoes.”  Through experimentation and self-teaching, she has transformed these ancient styles of painting into contemporary applications. While working with unconventional materials, she pushes the boundaries of traditional gilding methods to create modern works of art. Nurturing each piece from conception to the natural form it takes on, she embraces its imperfections and builds on each piece’s individual footprint of fractures, making her art distinctive and appealing.

“I love the process of the unknown. My work includes the art of destruction and acceptance of chance after creating what’s new to accomplish a surface that will influence each composition.”

Donna’s work is inspired by the beauty in nature that emerges despite all the challenges in the environment and how it relates to her life. The fractures created in her signature canvas represent the map of difficulties one must face and maneuver.  Despite these encounters, butterflies and flowers emerge from her compositions where she builds on their forms to expose and release them into our view.  Her palette typically includes precious metals, some left in their natural form to contrast against the destructed surface symbolizing strength.