 Donna Howell-Sickles shares a little of her well-earned cowgirl wisdom, "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.
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