I was born in North Adams, Massachusetts in 1977. I teach drawing to nursing
students at the Adelphi University Manhattan NYC campus. I am a veteran of the
Afghanistan conflict, and spent a year in Kandahar with my National Guard unit. I am
now out of the Army. People who meet me laugh in disbelief when I tell them I was in
the Army, because I am short, chubby, thoughtful, and empathetic.

My characters hover between traditional realism and cartoons, and feel uncanny in a
half-real way like that for me too. They inhabited my daydreams as a child, and then
again as an adult after I did a year in Afghanistan. Jung called myths "psychological
stories," which completely resonates with me, and similar to the Trickster myth, these
creatures represent something cryptic, proto-human, and mythical.

I also really enjoy drawing portraits.

Bill Donovan, Brief Biography and Artist Statement