Donnel Poppe's brings awareness about climate change through art

Walking into a dimly lit art exhibit, one of Sleeping Beauty’s fairy godmothers walks up to you with big blue eyes and a peppy voice and a lot on her mind. It’s hard to keep up with her as she hops from one topic to another.

Donnel Poppe is not actually a magical being — well, probably not — she is a 70-year-old artist from L.A. who is really into fire. As we strolled through the museum, she gave me an exclusive walkthrough of “Layers of Self,” an art exhibition at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, in which she is one five featured artists. She talked briskly, stopping before each of her artworks, most of which focused on pyrography which is the act of making art work with fire. Her other pieces were paintings of people with pots for heads.

Poppe’s mission is to keep climate change in constant conversation. “I heard about climate change in the ‘70s…our government doesn’t address it and it’s going to affect your generation horribly.” Her other artworks are miniature-scale models of natural disasters like one that depicts an earthquake splitting a house in two.

Much of the material used to create her art was bought in second-hand stores like Goodwill or were toys and other items that were thrown away and found, such as doll houses. Poppe believes that anything lying around can be turned into art. In “After the Smoke Clears,” there is a muselet (wire cage on corked bottles) that she got from a champagne bottle that was later used to make a mini lamp. Many of her art pieces take around six to eight months as she works on many pieces at the same time.

Artist Donnal Poppe, displaying her art titled “Fire and Flood”. Photos by Alexis Vega / el Don

A really devoted family woman, Poppe brought up her grandkids whenever she got the chance and spoke about how she gave them her artwork to preview and play with before general audiences.

Walking around the exhibit together, she moved things around or got rid of some items that were too “vibrant.” She grabbed a bright blue bag off her piece, “I Felt the Earth Move” stating: “It’s too noticeable,” as she walked away from the piece.

One piece that catches your eye is, “Turning Point,” which shows pieces of lightweight mica crystal being stabbed into a globe. The mica crystals on the globe are used to represent the floods that have hit the entire world, and what effects it has on the Earth. Poppe used a thin blade to cut the crystals into shards and handled them extremely cautiously.

“I haven’t really heard much of my generation talk about extreme climate change… I believe these images have a strong message to show.”

Her other works really drive that point home with damaged houses full of burnt household items such as lamps, kids’ toys, chairs, etc. The piece “Fire and Flood,” is the biggest sculpture she has which is a destroyed family home with possessions left behind which was influenced by the Palisades fires.

A featured art piece titled “I Felt the Earth move” made by Donnal Poppe shown at the Layers of Self art exhibition. Photos by Alexis Vega / el Don

“I have been around. I live in LA. I’ve been around people, and the fires were all around me. It did not come close to me, but it was awful that week.”

In her early years, Poppe traveled the world and once even drove from her home in L.A. to Southern Argentina. Her travels landed her in Bolivia for over three years where she decided to stay and create art. “I was studying pre-Columbian art…I spent a lot of time there, and that influenced me a lot.”

With support from her family, specifically her mom, who introduced her to art, she took her first steps into the creative art world.

“My mom was really a strong proponent. She didn’t buy us coloring books. She opened up a shopping bag because she told us, ‘You don’t want to color inside the lines.”

Although her show runs until the end of November, Poppe is still working on different pieces to inspire people to reduce their ecological footprint. She brings this up in an almost cheery tone.

The contrast between her bright energy and grim pieces would be strange for anyone else but somehow it makes sense with her. It’s almost as if she is using the power from another realm to bring light to ours.

Outside it was gray and drizzly. When asked how she was going to spend her next few rainy days, her eyes brightened and she smiled.

“I’m going to Disneyland with some friends.”