Donna’s creative practice focuses on political, social, emotional and educationally motivated themes such as stigma, communication, mental health, isolation, inclusion and lived experience. With lived experience of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and Bipolar Disorder, both highly stigmatised mental health conditions, Donna will be using the Award funding to exhibit Light and Shade at the well-respected Belco Art Gallery, Canberra, in an exhibition that will coincide with Mental Health Week and BPD Awareness Week in 2024.   

Light and Shade is a groundbreaking exploration of DBT through a visual medium. DBT centres around a synthesis of opposites, and the exhibition’s themes of acceptance and change, two seemingly disparate forces, are explored through a visceral, emotional work.