​

For as long as Marlaina can remember, her knee-jerk impulse has been to create through every medium that called her. Today, her everyday life as a professional writer, painter, and composer often intersects with what 12th-century abbess Hildegard Von Bingen called viriditas, "the greening power" or divine, creative life force of nature.

Coming from a long line of visionary souls, Marlaina was raised by parents 

who exposed her to many philosophies and health modalities.

It is an ethos she continues to embody in every area of her life.

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Writing​

She is a regular national content writer and journalist

for Natural Awakenings magazine,

a leading evidence-based health and green living magazine in the States.

Marlaina is also a multi-genre author of 15 books including

the OBE memoir Naked Soul (Llewellyn Worldwide, 1998),

the reference book Multidimensional Aromatherapy,

Spiritual Famine in the Age of Plenty, Goddess Consciousness: Women's Mysticism and Sacred Arts, the novel Broken Jar, and several volumes of visionary poetry.​​

   ​Art & Music

As a third-generation oil painter, she dedicates her brush to fine figurative art
and visionary art that celebrates who we are in the Big Picture. 

She had solo exhibits in several states until 2016

when a life-altering health remission changed how and why

she creates. Marlaina's work bridges the microcosm and macrocosm,

her jewel-toned canvases harnessing the mysteries of the multiverse.

​

As a composer, under the name WillowWynd,

Marlaina has released 21 albums in the genres of contemporary classical piano, world, and instrumental. Her diverse work has been commissioned for award-winning short films directed by Tara Gadomski, small business promos, gallery art installations, meditation videos, and self-help courses. 

 

 

Personal Rebirth
After living near Washinton D.C. and in the Philadelphia suburbs,
Marlaina returned to her rural roots in 2008.
In 2016, after 25 years of battling myalgic encephalomyelitis

with only one brief and partial remission, she experienced a life-altering, lasting 

physical and emotional healing based upon mind-body connections and resonance.​
 

She chooses the road less traveled, 

opts out of smartphone mania,

and continues to create organically despite 

 AI decimation of the arts.
Her everyday joys in her corner of rural Pennsylvania

include creating gourmet meals in a sunny kitchen,

brewing teas from her medicinal plant pantry of 100 herbs,

conjuring botanical perfumes,

 and walking wildlife sanctuaries year-round 

with her beloved husband of 16 years,  Jos. C. Donato-  

an outdoorsman and the author of historical fiction.
Her unexpected blessing has been spending time
in the presence of horses and experiencing their often astonishing

intuitive and emotional capacity.​​

Marlaina's lifelong inspiration and mentor was her mother Winifred ,
a multitalented singer-songwriter, poet, mystic, and Renaissance woman
who independently studied nutrition and managed health food stores
in New York City in the 1950s. From this early foundation,
Marlaina continues to live by the premise
that the fusion of healing, art, and spirit is an immutable force.