Artist Donn Clark

Donn is of the Dine’ (Navajo) and Chiricahua Apache tribes and is originally from Winslow, Arizona. After graduating from Winslow High School, he continued his education, and in 1980 received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. Donn also holds an associate degree in computer graphics, which he received in 1999 from Southwest University of Visual Arts in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and a certificate in the art of faux painting at Barth’s Faux Studios in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Donn is also an accomplished musician, as well as the proud father of three sons, each of whom inherited his talents for art and music.

Now living in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Donn works as a full-time artist. Due to health issues, he had to leave his profession of interior faux finishing, and now focuses solely on his art.

As a child, Donn began drawing with crayons, and at the age of six, he won his first award at the Arizona State Fair. As his interest and talents developed, he started creating pastel drawings and later transitioned to painting with oils, which currently is his predominant medium.

A left-handed artist, Donn Clark has won a multitude of blue ribbons at various prestigious art shows.  His paintings also hang in several notable museums.  Donn comes from a large family of artists as well. His older brother, Carl Clark and his wife Irene, are nationally acclaimed jewelers.  Another older brother, William Dixon, is also a noted artist in acrylic and oil paintings. The brothers believe their talent came them through their late mother, Modesta Clark, who was also a gifted artist who specialized in rug weaving. The mother of 12 children, Modesta passed away in July of 2011 at the age of 99.

Donn's attraction to deep, dark colors moves him to keep pursuing his intrigue of the darkness and the uncertainty it conveys. Thus emerged a new series entitled "Out of the Darkness," which uses a dark background consisting of deep colors blended in a subtle way.  The Out of the Darkness series conveys much for Donn, as an overall statement of coming out of restriction into enlightenment on a social, personal, and spiritual level.

Donn states, “I am always grateful for my talents and will always look for new ways in creating my art and music. It is all wonderful and never ending.”