DATE OF BIRTH: 1934

PLACE OF BIRTH: Vancouver BC

ANCESTRAL BACKGROUND: Italian/British

EMPLOYMENT OTHER THAN WRITING: visual artist

BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS: Donna Balma was born in 1934 and raised in Victoria, BC. She lived a Bohemian life in Vancouver where she met and married her husband, a potter at the Bernard Leach Pottery in St. Ives, England where she raised two daughters. In 1974 she returned to her birthplace, British Columbia (BC) Canada, to build a studio and home in the Pacific Northwest rainforest of Mt. Elphinstone. She has established herself as a prolific working artist whose work has been variously described as naïve, singular, outsider, visionary, classical, folk, cosmic pop, amongst others. Her work has been exhibited in many countries. In 2007, she published Reconciliation: the life and work of Donna Balma. The book recounts the story of her place in the Canadian and British avant-garde art world from her Bohemian roots in the late 1950s to her current Visionary work.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: "Reconciliation: The Life and Work of Donna Balma" Lentis Books 2007