D O N N A   H O W E L L - S I C K L E S

"The cowgirl has become my icon for women in general, and I'm using her to portray someone of warmth and humor with whom to laugh.

"My interest in the cowgirl imagery began in 1972 when I was a senior in college. A friend had given me an old postcard of a waving cowgirl, who seems to me a wonderful, fake, glamorized image, something someone just made up.

"By 1979 I had learned of the 'real' cowgirls from the rodeos and wild west shows of the 1910s and '20s. Their loud, bright costumes and eccentric lifestyles fascinated me. My work from 1979 to 1984 used the cowgirl with little or no facial features, with the intention of projecting a general western persona, not a specific person.

"As my work is now progressing, the cowgirls are expressing more joy, friendship, and self-esteem, and they need more specific personalities and facial features."

Donna's work is in the collections of the Tucson Museum of Fine Art, The National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming and the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming as well as many private and corporate collections in the U.S. and Europe.