We were lucky to catch up with Donna Vitucci recently and have shared our conversation below.

Donna, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I have always been a creative person, and my outlet from very early on was words and stories. I can still recite the first poem I wrote in 4th grade, titled “Snowflakes.” Obviously, it’s been a long road from there, including degrees in English, both undergrad and Master’s. I began publishing stories, poems and slices of memoir in 1990 in literary journals both in print and online. I have subsequently published 4 novels of literary fiction. In the summer of 2022, upon the loss of my husband, I really felt a dearth of any creativity or inspiration. In fact, no story or character or words combined into sentences seemed to matter in the world, not in the face of this grief, which truly I experienced as the worst kind of abyss. (and still do) However, in the wake of my creative outlet in a sense being closed off to me, I took up painting, and this has been my salvation!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

All my life I have been a writer, telling stories, creating poems, trying to capture the loved ones of my youth and my childhood in pieces of memoir. I’ve had success in publishing my work, but no commercial lauds such as Stephen King or Jodi Picoult. Still and always, the satisfaction came in the doing, not in the selling of the finished work. To gain blurbs for my novels from some of the great fiction writers I admire–Janice Eidus, Richard Peabody, John Dufresne, and the inimitable Ron Rash–this truly was the referendum I most value on the stories I told. A teacher once shared this Buddhist item, about the writing of a story, and it of course can be applied to all of life: “It’s not the summit, it’s the journey.”

When I began painting in 2022, I knew little to nothing about color, composition, technique. Thankfully, we live in the age where instruction from so many generous artists can be found in YouTube tutorials, Facebook reels, and other free online classes. I have availed myself of many of these, and the practices I’ve observed and learned and incorporated, to a degree, in my own work have helped me grow.

My acrylic paintings and mixed media artwork hang, and are sold, in local galleries and establishments. My work has been selected to appear in online literary journals such as Glacial Hills Review, Anti-Heroin Chic, Perceptions Magazine, Carolina Muse, The Brussels Review, and more. I’m particularly humbled by the fact that my paintings appear as the cover artwork in the most recent issue of The Chestnut Review and Tule Review 2024, a print journal published by the Sacramento Poetry Center.

My work is abstract and really no two paintings are alike. In my writing I developed a particular style, a recognizable voice, that I believe readers could recognize and identify as Donna Vitucci’s, but my painting is all over the place, and right now I like that just fine. I revel in the freedom of creating anything and everything I want, how I want, in the expression of the moment to which I’m enthralled.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

I think they are a travesty. They cater to a least common denominator, which assigns arbitrary value to work that is neither good nor bad, but simply something to hedge bets on regarding economic investment. I feel such sales demean work of creatives while lining the pockets of Philistines.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Because my studio is in my house, I’m able to go there and paint whatever whenever. I’m an incurable insomniac, and being able to paint at 2 or 3 in the morning helps calm me down, to switch the tracks in my brain, and effectively helps set me back on the road to slumber on any given night. I’ve made peace with this wonky kind of fractured rest, and instead of fretting about it, I lean into it. Some people take up a book and read to help make them drowsy in such middle-of-the-night episodes. For me, I paint. So I guess what I’m saying in response to this question is, my time is mine and I use it as the hours and minutes lay before me. I’m retired, so if I wish to paint while the rest of the world slumbers, I can do it. Freedom of time and purpose –these are the cherished aspects of my painting life right now. Secondarily, I must say the creative community–the artists and art lovers I have met and whom have become friends–this community is a happy corollary of the passion I’m pursuing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.magicmasterminds.com/donnavitucci
• Facebook: Donna Vitucci, artist
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donna-vitucci-b18a2855/
• Other: Donna D. Vitucci | Alamance Artisans Guild