For as long as Marlaina 
can remember, her knee-jerk impulse has been
to create through every medium that called her:
art, writing, music, dance, photography, moving images, ceremony, cooking, and fragrance.
Her everyday life as a professional writer, composer, and painter
often intersects with a rich inner life shimmering
with deep mysticism and interest in the 
overlapping of science and spirit. After decades of balancing creative disciplines and holistic arts, painting with sacred intention has become her deepest passion amplified by a life-altering health remission in 2016. As a creative oracle, she chooses to use her brush
to bridge the inner and outer world,
bringing forth the soul onto canvas,
and celebrating who we are in the Big Picture. 
She also leads meditative and ceremonial events at local wildlife sanctuaries to invite others to connect to their inner source.
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For almost a decade, until March 2023, Marlaina had been a 
national content writer for Natural Awakenings magazine. 
With a focus on integrative and holistic medicine, she interviewed some of the most significant sources in the industry
including Mayo Clinic, Dr. David Perlmutter, yoga legend Rodney Yee, celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito, and neuroscientist and global Transcendental Meditation leader Tony Nader.  
Marlaina has also written for Organic Lifestyle Magazine, 
Taste for Life, and other publications. 
Occasionally, due to magazine editorial protocol, 
she has used the pseudonym, Maya Whitman. 
She is the author of fifteen books in several genres including 
the 1998 OBE memoir Naked Soul (Llewellyn Worldwide),
Multidimensional Aromatherapy, Goddess Consciousness,
Spiritual Famine in the Age of Plenty, and the novel Broken Jar.​

As a composer, Marlaina has released 21 albums in the genres of semi-classical piano, world, new age, and ambient vocals under the name WillowWynd. Her diverse work has been featured in
award-winning short films directed by Tara Gadomski, small business promos, gallery art installations, 
meditation videos, and self-help courses.
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From her corner of the world in the beautiful Lake Wallenpaupack region of Pennsylvania, Marlaina chooses a path of slower living,
opting out of owning a smartphone and hiking wildlife sanctuaries
year-round with her beloved husband, Jos. C. Donato, 
an author of historical fiction.
 On any given day, when she is not painting in her studio,
Marlaina can be found brewing teas from her pantry of 72+ medicinal plants, conjuring aged perfumes, finding beauty with her digital camera, making beautiful, healthy gourmet food, nourishing a deep mystical life, and spending long hours with her favorite teachers-
the wildflowers/weeds/wisdom keepers.
Marlaina's greatest influence was her mother Winni, a multi-talented 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 belief that healing, art, and spirit are indeed a singular force.