Donna Van Bogaert

Donna Van Bogaert received her B.A. in Art from University of Wisconsin-Platteville. Her academic emphasis was in painting, printmaking, and graphics. During college, she began taking commissions for landscape and portrait paintings. From college, Donna went on to manage the art gallery and craft studio program at Northwestern University’s Norris Center. From there, she spent four years as first in-house graphic artist at Monroe’s The Swiss Colony. Her packaging and label designs won awards and she was an organizer of the first Monroe Arts and Activities Center Art Festival. She went on to direct the production department of a Madison commercial art studio and then opened her own. Over a 20-year period, she expanded into marketing and video production. For seven years, she appeared on camera as the Secret Snacker on WMTV’s PM Magazine restaurant review segment. After returning to graduate school for a Masters in adult learning and creativity and a PhD in cancer communication research, she became Branch Chief of the Information Resources and Communication Branch of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, a center of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Cincinnati, Ohio. During this period, Van Bogaert returned to oil painting and watercolor after a 10-year hiatus. She painted over 40 watercolors and large format oil paintings inspired by travels to Greece, Italy, Alaska, Europe, Singapore and Japan. Throughout, she continued to paint on commission, conduct creativity workshops, and was twice accepted to the Fitton Center for the Arts (Hamilton, Ohio) regional juried competition. In February of 2018, Van Bogaert retired from government service and moved to Mazomanie, Wisconsin where she opened Villa Lucci Studios for painting, mosaics, fiber arts, eco-sculpture, and kitchen arts. In 2019, Bailey’s Run Vineyards in New Glarus, Wisconsin presented a month-long retrospective of her art. During COVID, she returned to pastel painting and since has been working on a landscape series of the driftless area in southwest Wisconsin, primarily near the studio in Mazomanie. In 2022, she returned to reclaimed materials for use in art rugs. In preparing to teach a braided rug class, she developed a no-loom, handwoven technique for making rugs using reclaimed fabric from second hand clothing and home goods including leather and jute. Some fabrics, she has over-dyed or rust-dyed. In 2024, EPIC Medical Systems purchased two of her art rugs for their permanent collection. In addition to her commissions and art rug work, she is translating a series of landscape studies into large format “organic-gridded” oils and pastels. This approach and style of painting is a commentary on the early vision of the cubists and Bauhaus as well as the effects of the digital world on our vision of reality. Recent commission work includes a midcentury mosaic tray with handmade tesserae, a series of pastel portraits, and a 72” handwoven table runner for a midcentury table.