Log Pile Variation, 2021

Reduction woodcut

20 x 26 x 1 in.

Nature is always the source for my imagery and in this case the logs which were piled at the side of the road during the pandemic, served as a metaphor for loss.

About the artist:

Donna Day Westerman was born and raised in the suburbs of Detroit and at age 14 attended the Detroit Institute of Arts and Crafts (now the Center for Creative Studies), followed by the University of Michigan. She began her professional career at the age of 14 when she produced greeting cards for National Artcrafts. In 1960 she moved with her family to Boston, where she attended the Boston Museum School. After a year in Spain and England, where she attended London Polytechnic, she returned to the family home in Tustin, California, and enrolled in the masters program at Otis Art Institute. She majored in painting and printmaking and graduated summa cum laude in 1966. She is now a professor emeritus, retired after 32 years at Orange Coast College, where she served as department chair for 20 years and taught printmaking, painting, experimental painting, illustration, life drawing, color and design, computer graphics, set design and humanities.

Currently, she is an artist-in-residence at Kala Art Institute in Berkeley and also works out of her studio in the historic Arsenal Building in Benicia, California. She is currently developing a new body of work based on natural elements and her surroundings.