Donna M. Milbauer
Artist Statement
I was born under the sign of Libra in the year 1937. My younger sister and I were raised Gothic Catholic in Chicago during the years of World War II. We belonged to Queen of Angels' parish and attended grade school there, listening to Pascalian sermons on our wretched and hateful nature.
Our family history bore the silent stigmas of alcoholism, mental instability, verbal, physical and sexual abuse. My parents lived their lives together as unstable protagonists. My mother retreated into a dreamworld filled with vague "fears," punctuated with sessions of hysterical tears and denunciations. I remember her fragility, remember her speaking of growing up in foster homes, of her deprivations and loneliness, and of the dreams for a future happier life that sustained her. In the background I sense again my father's terrible dark, brooding, alcoholic silence.
What nourished me during those years was gazing into the colour of the night: the swiftly moving clouds . . . the swirling stars . . . the moon.
I was comforted by darkness.
Curriculum Vitae
Education
1990 B.F.A. (magna cum laude) Siena Heights University, Adrian, MI; Outstanding Student in Art 1989-1990
Employment
1989-Present Siena Heights University
Division Secretary, Visual & Performing Arts & Education Division
Visual Resources Librarian, Adjunct Faculty in Art
Other experience
2006 152.99 Miles From Here!! Siena Heights University Faculty Exhibition, Krasl's Gallery at the Box Factory for the Arts, St. Joseph, MI
2006 Faculty Exhibition, Klemm Gallery, Siena Heights University, Adrian, MI
2002 Faculty Exhibition, Klemm Gallery, Siena Heights University, Adrian, MI
2000 Artists' Books: Visual Literary Expressions, An Invitational International Exhibit,
Northcutt Steele Gallery, Montana State University Billings, Billings, MT
1997 Hunger, ArtSpace/Lima, Lima, OH
1996 Against Family Values: Exposing the Pathology of the Nuclear Family Structure,
Ann Arbor Art Association, Ann Arbor, MI
1995 In/Justice, Detroit Artists Market, Detroit, MI
1994 Wise Women: A Group Exhibition Celebrating the Art of Women Fifty Years of Age
and Older, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL
1994 Visual Voices: The Female, University of West Florida, Pensacola, FL
1991 12th MI Biennial Exhibition: Beyond Boundaries, Kresge Art Museum, MI State University,
East Lansing, MI
1991 Under Cover: Artists' Books, Target Gallery, Torpedo Factory Artists' Association,
Alexandria, VA
1990 Third National Juried Exhibition, Viridian Gallery, New York, NY
1988 7th Annual Southwestern MI Regional Art Competition, Krasl Art Center, St. Joseph,
MI
Bibliography
Sally Vallongo, Probing Hunger Through Art, The Blade, 11-5-97
Thom Jurek, Dismembering Family Values: Three Women Seize Patriarchal Fiction and Expose Its Dark Underbelly of Pathological Lies, Metro Times, 1-31/2-6, 1996
John Carlos Cantu, Exploding the Nuclear Family, The Ann Arbor News, 1-20-96
Marsha Miro, Political Outrage Colors Artists' Exhibit, The Detroit Free Press, 4-9-95
Donna Freckmann, From the Heart of Woman, Pensacola News Journal, February 1994
Richard Hayes, Breaking Barriers at Kresge, Capitol Times, February 1994
Collections
Montana State University Billings Library Special Collections, Billings MT
Siena Heights University, Adrian MI
Private Collections