Business

Here Is How Yvonne Doll Is Moving Hearts with Her Intoxicating Music and Abstract Artwork

Watching an artist move a brush over canvas looks like magic from the outside, rapidly and consistently rendering the image, yet it requires dedication and effort. Fine artist Yvonne Doll has had the good fortune to hone her artistic abilities, working in technology and pursuing her artistic interests simultaneously. She is a skilled oil painter who also fancies capturing the raw emotions of humans with the lens of her cellphone.

Yvonne grew up in Cincinnati, OH, then migrated to Chicago to attend The School of The Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). She is the youngest of 4 and hails from a middle-class family from the west side of Cincinnati. Reminiscing about her past, Yvonne notes that she had a typical Gen X story with a handful of adventures like trying Pop Rocks and soda as a child or landing a fast food job at the age of 15.

Identity crisis also hit Yvonne in her teens. She wasn’t sure what she felt, and at that time, she found her safe space in art and music with the help of her mother.‘I was always a very odd child.” I knew I was different but didn’t know what it was. I came out as a lesbian after college. My family was and still is very supportive, proud, and awesome. For this, I am very grateful,’ she reveals.

The source of her artistic talent is her mother, who taught music in the neighborhood. In addition to playing the saxophone in the symphony in high school, Yvonne also played the piano growing up. After college, she began writing songs and started playing the guitar. She is a self-taught guitarist who learned singing from her mother, a multi-instrumentalist with a degree in music therapy.

Keeping alive her passion for art, Yvonne has fostered a longstanding and devout artistic practice, relaying her thoughts on the canvas with oil paints. She kept her love and practice alive as she worked in the UX design tech space for 25 years. While managing a successful career in tech leading design teams, she relentlessly polished her fine art and musical skills.

Yvonne founded the alt-pop, indie-rock trio, The Locals. The band has played music fests all over the US, including SXSW, Midpoint  Music Fest, Summerfest, Dewey Beach PopFest, Hard Rock Cafe (Vegas), Chicago Pride Fest, and Milwaukee Pride YouBloom (Los Angeles, CA). Moreover, she was featured as one of the “Top 10 Female Guitarists you should know” in Guitar Player magazine.

She is well-known for her “Sleepy Urbanite” photo series, where she took photos of people sleeping on a train. The raw creativity and simple idea behind the project got her appreciation in the international art community and landed her an appearance on The Today Show, NBC 5 (local news), VOX POP Magazine (France), and NPR.

As a fusion of music and art, Yvonne refers to her art pieces as lyrical abstractions owing to her free-form and open technique. Gathering inspiration from music at their inception, her art pieces reveal the story throughout their creation and share an unbreakable bond with her music.

So, whether you’re looking for breathtaking art that speaks to your soul or want to feel inspired by fantastic new beats, check out Yvonne’s work on her website.