Beach day find… #beachday #wrinkly ...

Sometimes people think that age makes things lose their beauty and that old means broken, faded, or less valuable.

I don’t believe that.

I think time gives things character! More stories to tell! …and a kind of beauty you can’t get any other way.… what do you think? #beautyinimperfection #still ...

A huge thank you to everyone who voted for me in the art competition, shared my posts, left encouraging comments, or cheered me on from afar. 💛

I made it to the quarterfinals, which is farther than I ever expected, and honestly, the most meaningful part wasn’t the competition itself!!!!!!

It was being reminded just how many kind, generous people are in my corner!!!🌺🤩🎉🥰😍❤️

Every vote, message, and share felt like a little note saying, “Keep making your art.”

Look… As artists, we spend so much time alone—- making things and wondering if anyone notices. This experience reminded me that people do notice, and that support means more than I can say in a post, but I’ll try….

I may not have moved on to the next round, but I feel incredibly fortunate to have such thoughtful people cheering me on. Thank you for believing in me, for taking a moment out of your busy days to help, and for continuing to follow along on this wonderfully strange and creative journey.

Now… I think I’ll go back to photographing tarnished worn things, collecting rocks, and making my images….yup!

Thank you, truly. I appreciate every one of you. 🥰 ...

I’ve been asking people to vote for me in this artist challenge, and the funny thing is… it’s let me take a hot second and actually daydream.

Sure, of course I’m daydreaming about winning, lol. But it’s more than that. It’s made me think about what I would do if someone handed me $25,000 and said, “Go make your art.”

The first thing it would buy me is time.

Time to slow down. To pay attention. To follow ideas instead of rushing past them.

For the last few years, Scott and I have been traveling the country in our van, and everywhere we go I’m collecting little sparks. A tarnished spoon in an antique store. A cracked shell on a beach. A weathered tool. A rock. Some old lost something-or-other that catches my eye.

I’ve become fascinated by the things we usually overlook — the worn, imperfect, well-loved objects that still have so much beauty and story in them.

A grant like this would give me room to keep following that thread. To create new work, experiment, write, photograph, and keep building this body of work around aging, imperfection, resilience, and the beauty that comes from a life well lived.

I also keep thinking about turning this work into something bigger than individual photographs. Maybe a book. Something with images, stories, and reflections about finding beauty in what is worn, weathered, and imperfect. I think a lot of people, especially women, are hungry for that conversation right now.

More than anything, $25,000 would give me room to explore without rushing.

To create work that reminds people that the marks left by time are not flaws to hide, but evidence of a life being lived.

That’s the work I want to keep making.

So thank you for the votes, the encouragement, and for allowing me these few moments every day to daydream a little.

https://peoplesartist.org/2026/donna-dufault ...

This color is crazy beautiful! Nature showing off… #inspiration #colorlove ...

Beauty in photography gets dismissed sometimes, as if making something visually beautiful automatically makes it shallow.

I don’t buy that.

Yes, formulaic photography is worth questioning. Yes, social media rewards sameness. But beauty itself is not the problem.

A photograph can be beautiful and still have weight.
It can be carefully made and still be honest.
It can be quiet and still matter.

I wrote more about this on Substack... especially the false divide between beauty and meaning.

Read it here:
https://donnadufault.substack.com/p/to-those-that-complain-about-beauty ...