Donna Howell Sickles

In the Western art genre, Donna Howell-Sickles has taken the image and idea of the cowgirl beyond charcoal lines and into reality. Howell-Sickles has been exploring the layers beneath the
cowgirl’s engaging exterior for more than 30 years. A vintage postcard from the 1930’s featuring a cowgirl with ruby red lips sitting atop her horse instilled in Howell-Sickles a lasting fascination with the cowgirl spirit. The cowgirl in the postcard was at once both familiar and unreal. This dichotomy in the imagery has fueled Howell-Sickles’ artwork, and inspired her to create images of women that are both real and myth. Howell-Sickles’ artwork captures the quintessence and timelessness of the cowgirl
spirit. In 2007, Donna Howell-Sickles was inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum & Hall of Fame in recognition of her work with imagery celebrating the cowgirl.