Idyllwild local Donna Elliot sat down with me in the Courtyard Gallery to talk about her life and the adventures she’s taken over the years. While many know her for her art and being so active in smARTS and the Art Alliance of Idyllwild, art wasn’t always a big part of her life.
Elliot has always had an adventurous spirit, traveling for much of her life all over the world. Growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, Elliot graduated high school and spent two years attending Saint Louis University.
It was during the Vietnam era and Elliot had a different outlook on education, and also an interest in spelunking, which took her all over the globe.
“I had this grand idea that real education was out there in the real world,” Elliot said. “I did a trip around the world that started in Fiji, going to Samoa, New Zealand, Australia, into the UK, then I hitchhiked back to Papua New Guinea for a caving expedition. I earned enough money along the way to get to the next place. It was a trip of a lifetime.”
Her family all lived in St. Louis, and while most of her family didn’t share that sense of adventure, she was supported by her parents to a degree.
“I remember my very first trip when I was 17 that took me around the United States, and when I got back my parents said, ‘I hope you got it out of your system,’” Elliot said with a chuckle. “My parents were happy as long as I was. They were supportive of whatever I wanted to do, even though they couldn’t always understand it. They were always supportive.”
During her world adventures, Elliot made her way to England where she decided to start thinking about a career after spending so many years jumping from job to job, country to country.
“It was a pretty cool thing when you were in your 30s to get a career,” said Elliot. “That’s how I got into International Health Insurance.”
For many years, Elliot worked for different Intentional Health Insurance companies, taking her to the UK, Singapore, Dubai and Hong Kong all while continuing her higher education.
“If you want to get ahead, you have to change companies and look for new opportunities,” Elliot said. “I started going back to school in the mid-90s and finished around 2002.”
Elliot received her B.A. in business administration from Open University and also finished her MBA.
“I found it fascinating and it opened up a whole new world for me because my career trajectory was to become a managing director, setting up health care departments all over the world,” said Elliot.
While receiving her education and accomplishing her career goals, Elliot never stopped going after adventures.
In 1997, while in the UK, Elliot met her husband Neil Jenkins.
“We were both part of the Open University Mountaineering Society,” Elliot said. “He was leading a mountaineering trip that I went on and we raced each other up the mountain,” Elliot said while laughing. “He’ll say he won, but I think I did.”
While Elliot and Jenkins continued to travel and work, they discovered Idyllwild and purchased their first home here in 1999.
“I joined the Sierra Club, and they had a rock climbing section that I became a part of,” said Elliot. “So they used to come up here for the rock climbing, and that’s when I fell in love with Idyllwild and I knew it was a place I wanted to retire.”
After retiring in 2007, Elliot and Jenkins bought an RV and traveled around California, visiting state and national parks, exploring what the west coast had to offer before moving back to Idyllwild in 2011.
Even now, Elliot and Jenkins don’t sit still very long.
“We’re probably home six months of a year, and traveling the other six months,” Elliot said. “We go to the Grand Canyon at least once a year. We went to New Zealand in December and January, then Montana for ski season in February, and we’ll go to the Grand Canyon in April. We spend the summers in the Sierras and South Lake Tahoe rock climbing. It’s all about doing things while we still can.”
Outside of paragliding, fitness training on the trails, running and caving, Elliot also enjoys reading and art.
“I do a lot of reading,” confessed Elliot. “I’ve read all the Pulitzer prize winners for fiction, which is about 140 books, and all of the Booker Prize Winners.”
After joining the Art Alliance of Idyllwild (AAI) in 2013, Elliot learned all about what types of art she enjoyed and by 2016 became the president of the AAI.
“We had not done any art until we were retired,” said Elliot. “The AAI is one of the ways we can stay creative and give back. I do alcohol ink paintings, textile art, wearable art, handmade greeting cards, photography and digital art. Digital art is my favorite because you can do almost anything that your imagination can come up with.”
Elliot and Jenkins have their own business “Peakdancers Art,” selling their art pieces at many art events around town.
“We do a lot of art and give a lot away,” said Elliot. “We love doing it, but we are always surprised when we sell things. Letting other people enjoy original art at an affordable price is something we really enjoy doing.”
Whether it’s art, adventure or travel, Elliot has an outlook on life that can be used in all aspects. “I’m a firm believer that anything you really want you’ll make happen,” she said. “You just have to be open to opportunities and change, and what you really want in life will arise.”
When asked what advice she would give about finding things after retirement she said: “No matter your interests, if you join a club or just find somebody that’s a bit more experienced than you, just go out and see if you like it. Then you can go from there.”
