April 28, 2021

Donna Harris

Donna Harris was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. Her given name is Donna Michelle Vasquez Harris, and she has gone by Harris, a stage name, since 1986. She describes her family as having a Sephardic background as well as a Catholic background, and she identifies as Hispanic. She recalls being drawn to creative work from an early age, preferring to build her own dollhouses, carve boxes, design furniture, and wallpaper walls with wrapping paper rather than play with store-bought toys.

Harris studied social science rather than art, and for a long time she called herself a crafter or creative person rather than an artist. She channeled her creativity into her community and her children, and she remodeled homes for about 30 years, seeing the redesign of floor plans, plumbing, and electrical as its own creative process. In 2001 she started a media blog and taught herself photography because she could not afford a photographer, eventually amassing around 10,000 photographs.

Harris specializes in candid photography, often shot in grayscale, capturing people and places in the moment, though she uses color when a subject such as a Native American pueblo reservation calls for it. During the pandemic she began painting in an abstract, contemporary style. She feels her Judaism deeply influences her work, with spiritual qualities and a sense of repairing the world present in her images. She was invited to share pieces in the Tzva'im exhibit and hopes viewers understand that every Jewish artist brings a different background and perspective.

Read Full Transcript