Dona Gelsinger ~ A Labor of Love~
From the day she was able to grasp a pencil, Dona has had a love for art. After graduating from California State University with a Bachelor's Degree in Art, Gelsinger's first major commission was to paint the Stations of the Cross for St. Denis Church in Diamond Bar, Calif. This project, the creation of 14 near life-size paintings, consumed her artistic energies for nearly two years and won her widespread acclaim.
Early in the 1990s, Dona worked with Thomas Kinkade publisher, Lightpost Publishing to expose her artwork to the retail community. Demand for Dona's artwork grew at a rapid pace and in 1994, Brian and Dona founded Little Angel Publishing, Inc. to offer Dona's artwork on limited edition prints and to license her brand.
Our business is founded on exceptional talent, a burning desire for successs, faith and determination and a lot of help from the Lord. The vision has always been to create art that will inspire, warm the heart and draw a smile.
Dona poured her efforts into creating adorable little angels that were highly detailed, with elements of nature and what we now call “God-Light” or the luminous sun beams shining through the clouds. Many brown envelopes filled with artwork went out in the mail and subsequently came back with nice notes saying “thanks, we’ll keep you on file”. Finally, our big break, in 1996, the largest and most famous collectibles company in North America, The Bradford Exchange, responded with interest in creating a plate series based on Dona's little angels. A licensing relationship was born. The first plate series, “Garden Blessings” was a great success and jumpstarted a whole line of collectible ornaments, music boxes, figurines and much more.
In 2003, Dona's son Jesse, a graduate of Southern Oregon University with a Bachelor's degree in Software Engineering, joined the team at the position of Licensing Director for the company. Our business is now completely up to speed technologically, utilizing the latest in digital art creation, file delivery and production.
Dona’s art can be found on tapestries, greeting cards, gift bags and boxes, fabrics, calendars and a whole host of other products. At retail, we have had programs in direct-to-consumer, big box stores including Wal-Mart, Hancocks Fabric, Christian bookstores, Nationwide Party Supply Chains, countless specialty shops and independents. We have maintained our corporation as a family owned and operated enterprise and we pride ourselves on quality, dependability and reputation.