An Eye for Art: Westminster sculptor finds creative process to be ‘magical’
Donna McCullough is a Westminster resident and sculptor who became interested in art when she was 6 years old. She grew up around artists — her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother all painted.
McCullough started to draw at an early age. At 8 years old, her drawing of sheep was purchased for $5 by the local priest. Her mother taught art in the basement of their home so McCullough would go down and take art classes with her students, who were of all ages.
McCullough’s mother also taught at Mount de Sales Catholic High School for Girls in Catonsville.
She learned to do needlework from her grandmother. McCullough also did drawing and painting. Since her mother taught her to sew, McCullough made her own clothing in high school.
McCullough attended Catonsville Community College and got an associate degree in applied arts. She also studied painting and 3D work. She sold her printmaking images and paintings at an Annapolis gallery when she was in college.
McCullough became a graphic designer, pre-computers, and designed retail packaging such as shopping bags and boxes. “It was fun,” she said.
“It was very creative. I learned how to design repeat patterns, which was challenging. I had to do it all by hand including the lettering. I used ruling pens and rapidographs back then,” McCullough said. She remembers designing a shopping bag for the department store Bonwit Teller.
McCullough went to a design firm in Baltimore that did work for different agencies. From there she went to the Baltimore Sun. She was a designer there for 10 years and then left to work in Washington, D.C., where she has been for the past 34 years. Now she uses computers for graphic design.
In 1995, she wanted to learn to weld, so she went part time at her job and took a welding class at the Corcoran College of Art.
In 1995, McCullough started making sculptures. “I was inspired by Deborah Butterfield’s work that I had seen at the Baltimore Museum of Art. I also remembered Degas’ ‘Little Dancer’ sculpture,” a work she had seen there as a child, McCullough said.
In 1996, she already had a gallery that showed her sculptures; she is still with that gallery today.
“I love animals. I sculpt horses, dogs and chickens, McCullough said. “My first piece was a horse head named Zeus, my horse at the time. The second sculpture was a German shepherd to honor my dog Rudi, who had just passed away.”
She is best known for her sculptural dresses. Over her many years in the work force, McCullough was upset by the disparities between men and women. So, she crafted steel and metal dresses to represent armor as protection to face the world. “People tended to look at women as lesser, weaker and delicate,” McCullough said. “I wanted to depict them as strong and resilient.“
The dresses are usually life size. McCullough currently has a piece at the Kreeger Museum in Washington through Jan. 27. It is an outdoor piece made of recycled copper.
Her work also has been displayed at the Yucatan Contemporary Art Museum in Merida, Mexico; the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey; The Delaware Contemporary in Wilmington, Delaware; The Hickory Museum of Art in North Carolina, and in Paris and Belgium through the Art in Embassies program.
McCullough represented the U.S. in a show organized by the Saudi Arabian delegation to UNESCO in Paris, which purchased one of her sculptures. Her work is owned by collectors in Germany, Bahrain, Australia, Japan and across the U.S.
McCullough also displays her work at Morpeth Contemporary, a gallery in Hopewell, New Jersey, and at Nikki Sedacca Gallery in Sarasota, Florida.
“I like doing sculpture because it is magical. I use a lot of found and repurposed objects. I enjoy the creative process of taking unusual objects to create beautiful things.” McCullough said.
Her website is McCulloughstudio.com. She is also on Instagram @donnamccullough.sculptor.
Lyndi McNulty is the owner of Gizmo’s Art in Westminster. Her column, An Eye for Art, appears regularly in Life & Times.