Donloyn Gadson – Artist Portfolio Magazine

• Artist Portfolio Magazine – 2016 Portraits Art Exhibition
• Donloyn Gadson – Charleston, NC

My work reflects intense themes of identity, voice and inner truths by carefully crafting a story with both realistic and symbolic elements. It tells detailed stories from the perspective of a passionate and uniquely gifted multiracial woman in a world that continuously tries to extinguish her fire and place her in a box in which she will not fit. Inspired by the wounds sustained from childhood sexual abuse and life in a dysfunctional household, my portraits are strength, beauty and courage personified. Filled with intensity, my work shows a heroine overflowing with elegance, grace and strength despite living a life that has been anything but smooth and easy. Because of my rough and difficult obstacles, pencil and charcoal on textured watercolor paper with jagged edges is the perfect medium in which to tell my stories.