Who is Donna Vokes?
Hello, I was born deaf 24 years ago and raised in Hampshire, along with 3siblings, an assortment of animals and a wealth of creativity and imagination.
......Our days during the summer holidays were spent on the farm with our Granddad George. We picked strawberries in the strawberry fields with Grandma Teddy, filling up our tummies rather than our plastic blue buckets. Fond
memories we have of Granddad Charlie wheeling us about in the garden in his treasured wheelbarrow and sloppy wet kisses from Nanny Connie. My mother introduced me to a world of art and colour, showing me how to draw and paint, on paper she meant rather than the wall! Dad let us drive the small tractor
that was used to cut the grass. Ooh the fear we caused him when we nearly knocked down each and every one of the trees at the village manor, turning him prematurely grey!..........
I rely on speech rather than sign language. I tried to learn when I was 20, but quite frankly, I was hopelessly rubbish! I studied ND Fine Art at the Surrey Institute of Art and Design University College (Now the University College for the Creative Arts) and finished in 2005 with x3 distinctions when I decided to follow the family footsteps to immigrate to. Even though the last foot steps were treaded almost 50 years ago.
It was during art school I discovered travelling and really got to know . I visited Queensland and Victoria (Giving my parents only 4 days notice! And now dad is nearly bald!) A country I had always dreamed of visiting after growing up to the stories of my Nanny Connie’s family emigrating there. After I completed my studies, I moved out again, but this time to the island of Tasmania (south of Melbourne .)
I returned to the in 2006 (intending to stay only a month) but instead I got the urge to chase and complete a bigger dream. This one was to kick start my career as a creative artist and set up my own business.
Donna