b.1938 Houston TX, USA
MFA Kansas State University, Wichita
BA Kansas State University, Wichita
Lives and works in Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA

Donald Roller Willson’s characters like Cookie the Baby Orangutan, Jane the Pug Girl and and Patricia the Seeing Eye Dog of Houston are a personification of the artist’s fantasies and allegory of human follies. According to the artist, ‘silliness is just as important as love, just as important as tragedy’.

His excellent draftsmanship renders these comic images of animals with extremely fine details and elaborate frames. His art, strongly echoing the Northern Renaissance masters, could be understood as Hieronymous Bosch’s imagination depicted in Albrecht Dürer´s details.

Wilson’s works are collected worldwide and popular among Hollywood celebrities like Robin Williams, Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep. His works are held in public collections of the Brooklyn Museum, New York, Museum of Contemporary Arts, Chicago and Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Instittion, Washington, DC, USA.