Donald is a creative on the rise, born in Baltimore, Maryland in the mid-sixties, outside of his years of serving active duty in the U.S. Airforce the state of Maryland has been his home. Donald’s a self-taught, mix media artist who hones his craft using oil and acrylic based art markers, ink, and watercolors.

In the beginning Donald’s mother, a Baltimore City Public school teacher, allowed him to use his imagination and creativity to collaborate on the creation and concept of seasonal and holiday bulletin boards at various schools where she taught throughout the city. Donald’s interest and creating began with comic books from his father which included The Phantom and Spiderman in particular because he could relate to Peter Parker as the geek nerdy kid. This fascination resulted in Donald creating and designing his own original characters with powers that he imagined would allow him to be one of the cool kids and fit in.

Donald’s formal art training was a Graphic Arts curriculum at Mergenthaler Vocational Technical High School, which upon graduation he joined the U.S, Air Force. At the age of 32, Donald was diagnosed with Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis, as a result Donald temporarily lost his vision, walked with a cane/walker on multiple occasions, and was advised he’d be wheelchair bound by the age of 36. The MS went into remission leaving permanent nerve and sensory damage in both hands and at that point Donald stopped creating.

In December of 2021 Donald reconnected with his close friend Aaron Mills from high school who with encouragement and support convinced Donald to pick up the pencil again and “Draw anything!”. After multiple tips and suggestions such as using harder lead pencils for lighter line sketching, art markers to assist with grip, hand fatigue and control, Donald begun creating again and hasn’t stopped since.

Donald’s work has been featured in Emmett Magazine’s Nov 2022, Dec 2022, Jul 2024, and Oct 2024 issues which are available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other book selling outlets.

Donald has provided artwork at the following exhibitions.

• The Holiday Makers Market at Baltimore Inner Harbor Harborplace

• Creatively Black Baltimore at Inner Harbor Harborplace

• The Baltimore City sponsored “Art After Dark “live event at Lexington Street

• Mona Lisa’s Juke Joint R&B Art Show at The Belize Rooftop

• “Pieces of Me” solo Exhibition at The Black Genius Art Show, Genius Guice Studios (resident artist)  

• Towson Art Collective “Family” exhibition at Towson Court Towers

• Adore Exhibition at The Black Genius Art Show, Genius Guice Studio

• Afro-Futurism at Quid Nunc Gallery

• Artdromeda Winter Collective 2024 at Montgomery Park

• Artdromeda Spring Collective 2025 at Montgomery Park   

• Dreams of You “The Genius of Marvin Gaye”

• Laurel Art Guild 56th Annual Juried Exhibition

Donald maintains his Instagram handle: @dpartlow2, where you can follow his evolution and artistic journey since Jan 2022.