A respected wildlife artist and third-generation artist from Valley City, Dawn Wright has been selling original drawings, limited edition prints, and notecards for more than thirty years. She is the owner and sole artist for Dawn’s, a catalog business for her prints and notecards, which just recently went online.

Wright takes a great amount of pride in the detail and authenticity of her work, for which she largely credits to her studies in biology and ornithology. (She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and chemistry from Valley City State University.) Her artwork - original drawings in pen and ink or in scratchboard (as well as black and white lithographs) of animals and birds - have graced the covers of several regional magazines, namely North Dakota Outdoors, North Dakota Horizons, the South Dakota Digest, Iowa Conservationalist and P.E.O. International Record. Her print “Sharptail Grouse” was used as a cover illustration for Jim Haverstock’s book Sharptail Hunting As I Have Known It, and her print “The Pheasant” was used on the letterhead of former South Dakota governor William Janklow. Her work has been repeatedly commissioned by research biologists employed with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and has been featured in the North Dakota Trivia Game under the “arts and entertainment” category.

During the months of April, May, June 2002, she was one of the featured artists in the offices of North Dakota Governor John Hoeven and First Lady Mikey Hoeven.

Following in her mother Lillian Emery’s footsteps, Dawn has recently pursued creating oil-pastel portraits. Dawn credits her mother, along with her father Neal, for instilling a love of art, learning, and nature.

More information on Dawn and her art can be found on her website www.artworkbydawn.com.

- Ben Nemenoff