Dragons' Teeth Design Studios

Why Dragons' Teeth?

In Greek mythology, dragons' teeth when planted like seeds would grow into fully-armed warriors. While many modern interpretations of this myth cast it in a negative light, we choose to embrace the positive. Dragons' teeth, to us, are like ideas or sparks of creativity being sown in the fertile soil of imagination. We never quite know what they will grow into, but it's always a powerful, inspiring experience.

Our Three Main Goals:

  1. Build a Community of art-loving, adventuresome people of all ages and from all walks of life, folks who will be inspired and invigorated by our progress and success;
  2. Raise working capital to take care of our direct and some indirect expenses over the next year or so, as we create our first major collection of our installations;
  3. Bring into the yearning world at least 20 outstanding Murals in Motion installations for Dragons' Teeth Design Studios' first "A-Maze-ing Exhibition" in late 2013 or early 2014.

What's an installation? What's a Mural in Motion? Why Twenty of the things?

The way DTDS defines an installation is as a free-standing, three dimensional structure comprised of four frames, each frame being 2' wide by 6' tall, and hinged together using our very own hand-crafted system; within each frame, an original work of art is installed. The construction of our installations allows the pleasure of their placement in many places where art could not otherwise be enjoyed.

A Mural in Motion is a style of DTDS installation: a painted canvas panel is installed within each frame, so that the overall effect is as stunning as a mural painted upon your wall. Except, it can be easily moved to change the flow of energy in your space. We are particularly inspired by the Color Field painters of the Twentieth Century, such as Paul Jenkins and Mark Rothko. The unique and dazzling paintings suspended within our installations are the heart and soul of our fledgling company. We employ all manner of techniques to get color onto the canvas, and will be posting photos to inform and entertain our Community.

Why Twenty Installations? Well, just imagine strolling through such a cavalcade of color, wouldn't you feel great? Transformed? The power of beautiful color to improve our mood has been well proven by science. Even think of your favorite color, and you will feel better. Twenty Murals in Motion, each six feet tall and eight feet wide, exhibited together will rock your world! You could get happily lost in our maze of beautiful large-scale freestanding works of art. Unlike a painting hung "over there" on the wall, a Dragons' Teeth Design Studios installation will come to you, wrap around you in a colorful hug. Place it next to your bed, and you will open your eyes to delightful glowing color. Every installation is an answer to the question, "What if...?"

Actually, twenty installations is just the tiniest tip of a very large iceberg. How about 2,000...? Please join us in our adventure of discovery!

Who are the people behind Dragons' Teeth Design Studios?

Two Artists, Mother and Daughter, who share a love of creating beautiful things in a variety of ways. Between us we have over fifty years' worth of experience as professional artists and designers. We are also naturalists, and express our love of nature through artwork, habitat restoration, and education.

Donna McVicar Kazo became an artist at age four, when she fell in love with horses and began to draw them, and other animals, with passion. At twenty years of age, she started showing and selling her artwork. Soon Donna began to specialize in portraits of animals for which she could guarantee a perfect likeness. From 1991-2000, as Art Director and Associate Editor of Tropical Fruit News Magazine, published by the Rare Fruit Council International of Miami, she was called upon to illustrate all manner of unusual botanical treasures. In 1993, along with her late husband, Dr. Tom Kazo, Donna founded Wildlife Research Team, Inc., an environmental nonprofit organization which accomplishes its projects using its own fleet of canoes. Her "canoe view" of waterways both fresh and salt has provided solid inspiration for her art. She still volunteers as WRT's President and has personally led dozens of cleanups of South Florida waterways. In 2011, she began re-publishing her father's memoirs, utilizing the Kindle platform. Captain Don McVicar, OBE was a Canadian aviation pioneer who wrote 13 well-received books, beginning with Ferry Command in 1981. After WWII, he founded World-Wide Airways in Montreal, so that Donna's happiest childhood memories are of playing in WWA's airplanes in their hangar and of being her dad's co-pilot.

Christianna R. Cannon has been an artist since her earliest years. According to her mom, she figured out how to see like an artist at three years old. A Florida native, Christie has always been inspired by nature, especially reptiles. At age nine, her comic strip, "Ally Alligator" was published in the Miami-Dade County Parks and Recreation magazine, Tropical Trails. At age eleven, Christie taught herself HTML from a book, and soon built her first website from scratch. She does freelance illustration and web design, and has been webmaster for Wildlife Research Team's website since 2002. She designed and built this website for Dragons' Teeth Design Studios. During high school, her powerful ink drawings of dragons won her prizes and respect from fellow students, and a scholarship to the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida. Some of Christie's happiest childhood memories involve adventures growing up in WRT canoes, and of sitting quietly and letting lizards come to perch on her.

Powered by Gratitude

We believe that Art cannot exist in a vacuum. Although created in solitude, to be fully realized, Art needs exposure to other humans. Although it's not easy to expose their heart-children to the public, Artists must take the chance and share these precious entities. We believe that a work of Art is only completed when it is viewed by others. We know that our installations will bring delight to the world. It's our mission.

Our Patrons

We are very grateful to those good people who believe in our mission and choose to be our Patrons. Our Patrons deserve to be the first to be rewarded for believing in us and our mission. We have started off by creating appropriate Rewards that we know we can fulfill, based upon our experience and abilities. As our journey progresses, we will be seeking further ways to delight our dear Patrons, including first access to all our future creations.

What goes into a Mural in Motion installation? A combination of knowledge and raw materials, including:

The first three steps The next three steps The last three steps Here is just a partial list of the books which inspired us and instructed us (so far):

Dragons' Teeth Design Studios Is Proud to Announce...

Prayer-Arrow Workshop
What's New? Cosmic Sculpture Montage
Mangrove Fractal 1 Mangrove Fractal 1 Mangrove Fractal 1

Questions or Comments?

We want to hear from you, our Patrons! As we move into the Reward Fulfillment period after our Jumpstart Campaign, your comments and questions can be shared with our Community on our Wordpress blog or our Facebook page. You can email us at dragonsteethdesignstudios at gmail dot com and we will post your question and our answer on our blog (unless you specify otherwise) or you can comment directly to the blog.

Interested in a full-size reproduction of one of Donna's paintings? Please visit her website to learn more. These paintings are available as museum-quality giclée prints in several sizes on both canvas and paper. Contact Donna for purchasing information.

Many of these images are also available in Donna's CafePress shop, printed on a wide variety of products, to include calendars, clothing, drinkware, notecards, clocks, mousepads...

The black and white mini-prints are available through Donna's Etsy shop or you are always welcome to contact her directly.