Donna Kuhn

Donna Kuhn is a visual and video artist, author, poet and dancer. She makes videos for musicians and poets.

Her visual art includes drawing, painting, mask making, doll making, wearable art, jewelry, collage, monoprinting and altered books. In addition, her art has been published widely in print and online literary magazines and as illustrations and covers of a few of her poetry books. Influences include Picasso, Dubuffet, Klee and outsider art.

Statement

I make art because that is the only way life makes sense to me. A recurrent theme in my work is the face: semi-abstract, colorful and emotional. I don't choose to draw these faces. Their forms just come to me. They jump off the page and stare at you. Dare to stare back. I have tried to choose between media. I cannot. I feel fully engaged and alive when I'm creating. I'm a maker of images more than a storyteller. My work is about being a woman and an outsider. It has been described as playful, haunting, bold, whimsical, colorist, sad, poetic, mysterious and tense.

Sonoma State University '81
B.A English/Creative Writing


Donna has studied art at The University of Maryland, Sonoma State University, Santa Rosa Junior College and Cabrillo College and is a past member of The Santa Cruz Art League, The Northern California Association of Art Therapists and The International Expressive Therapy Institute.

In addition, she has a lifelong Adult Education Credential in Special Ed. for The Elderly and has taught creative art, arts and crafts, self awareness and the creative process and movement to seniors in nursing homes and retirement centers in Santa Cruz And Sonoma County, CA.

She has attended workshops in creative arts and dance therapy and did a poetry therapy internship at Crownsville Hospital in Maryland that involved teaching poetry to adolescent outpatients.

Student Teacher, California Poets in the Schools

Video:

Donna Kuhn's experimental videos incorporate poetry, dance, visual art and sound.

They have been shown at The Electronic Village Galleries (England,) Tether (London), Open Video Conference, (New York),Cinema Feministe Program at Cinema Zavod Udarnik, Maribor,Slovenia, ISEA (Germany) Künstlerhaus k/haus Kino, Vienna, Austria, Vox Feminae 4, Zagreb, Croatia, The Coexist Galleries (London), The Disposable Film Festival, (San Francisco) The New York Independent Film and Video Festival, The Santa Cruz Digital Arts Festival, The Mountain Arts Center and online at DVblog, PostVideo Art, Disturb The Peace TV, Hyperrhiz, City Gallery, ArtFemTV, Moving Poems, Oregon Literary Review and Mad Hatter's Review, Harvard's Infinity Show/Visual Poetry, The Gypsy Art Show, Unlikely Stories, Lewis Lacook,Papertiger Media (cd rom) Berta Art. She has created music videos for Wade Worthington/Adam .Smith and Muza of Sol Aravena

Visual art:

Donna Kuhn has exhibited her fine art and crafts at Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Arts (CO), Sustaining Cultures (Taos), Imagine If (CO), Moxie (Taos), Wilder Nightingale Gallery (Taos, NM)Taos Digital Art Show, Taos Art in Town Hall Exhibit, The Question Mark Gallery (CA), Mudra Gallery (CA)...