Donna used to work at Kodak, the camera and film company. She didn't consider her work to be an art form at the time, but looking back on it she can see how one may think it was art. 

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“We didn’t do fancy art in my place of business; we did safety posters or other kind of posters. And government work, Christmas cards for the bosses. They devised what they called squeegee art. It was a picture film, the things that you could apply, that you didn’t have to cut. My boss used to teach it at RPI, it was a brand-new way of doing things. But I had to go and learn it with the ladies. You had to use the dark room, so I had to go down there with him to learn. He was showing me how to do this, so other ladies had to go too. Back in those days, they did not let a man and a woman… I was not allowed to learn to do it. The man was allowed to do it. That was the way it was back in those days. Well, it’s different now, this is a good thing and bad too.”

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Two of Donna's granddaughters are artists, she says.

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“My two granddaughters, they’re apparently very talented. But I’m not. I think that music is very good for them, it plays a role in their lives, and it is going to play one in the future. But I don’t know what it’s going to be, I don’t know what they’re going to do. I think all avenues are open for them in the future.

 

My granddaughter plays piano. She plays waltzes, which appeal to the people here, they said they recognized the songs. She even offered to come back, and they wanted her to come back the next day!

I think she’s been playing for a number of years, but she quit. She had a falling out with the teacher and she quit for a time, but her mother talked her into taking the lessons again.

 

And my other granddaughter, she has a mother who had trouble with her kidneys. She had a kidney transplant just recently and it was successful. So, this girl is like 10 or 13 going on 35. But she’s very smart and her parents were trying to keep her busy, and so she sings in Japanese inspired by this is a guy she really likes. She’s kind of weird… I think that it’s interesting that she’s chosen this Japanese singer to emulate, and she is doing very well with him.”