About Donna Maukonen

I was first introduced to repainting shortly after I found the Gene Marshall dolls at my local FAO Schwarz in Orlando. I was blown away by her size, her beauty and her great wardrobe! After buying my first Gene, I found the Florida Gene Club on the Web and started attending meetings. Besides meeting some great friends, that first meeting was where I saw my first repaint. I gushed to one of my friends "What Gene is THAT?", and found out that she was a repaint by the very talented Helen Skinner.

A short time thereafter I tried my first repaint. No, photos of her do NOT exist (I would have burned them!) and I have actually re-repainted her since. With the encouragement of my dear friend Helen and time and patience, I finally had a repaint that I dared to sell on eBay. She sold and I continued to repaint and grow in my technique. Eventually I found out about glass eye placement, and have done that for a number of years as well as regular repaints. What is fun about this "business" is that there is always something new to try, a new sculpt to paint, a new way to do hair, and on and on. I never get bored!

As a daughter of an artist and art teacher, I've always felt free to explore my creativity. I feel closest to those artists who explore the spiritual and romantic aspects of humanity and the world, so it's no surprise that my favorite artists are impressionists like Claude Monet and Pre-Raphaelites like J.W. Waterhouse and James Tissot.

I'm thankful to our wonderful creator God who displays His creativity throughout this incredibly complex and beautiful world. I'm also grateful that He has given me the skills, curiousity and energy to do the creative work that I do.

I've studied fine art and design at the University of Central Florida and Seminole Community College and I presently work as a operate my own graphic and interactive (web) design boutique firm, Maui Media. For more information on my design business and to view my portfolio of recent work, click here.