Donna Marie Ethel Richmond Salvemini

Donna Marie Ethel Richmond Salvemini

February 14, 1939 - September 20, 2025

The world grew a little more ordinary on September 20, 2025, when Donna Salvemini - artist, astrologer, animal advocate, and unapologetic free spirit - took her final bow.

Born on Valentine's Day in 1939, Donna's life was anything but conventional. Raised in Hell's Kitchen, NYC, with her mother Clara and brother Ronald (both predeceased), Donna learned early how to be tough, outspoken, and fiercely independent.

Her truest self came alive with a paintbrush in hand; Donna saw depth in unlikely places. She painted people, yes, but her favorite portraits were of trees - the older, knottier, and more gnarled, the better. She said painting them was like painting her own soul: complicated, weathered, beautiful, and true.

Her creativity was unending and took countless forms. Donna sewed elaborate Halloween costumes when her children were growing up, painted epic rock-and-roll portraits on the backs of friends' jean jackets, and recreated album art like Asia's iconic Aqua dragon, with astonishing detail. Her portrait of John Lennon flashing the peace sign was among her most beloved works. Donna dreamed up unusual stuffed animals from bright plaid wools and tweed - Horris the Hedgehog is still remembered with love - along with sock dolls and even tiny shell animals she made in the last weeks of her life. For Donna, art was never confined to canvas; it often spilled into everything she touched.

In the early '80s, Donna and her then-husband, Michele Salvemini - an Italian immigrant and sculptor - opened the Aquarius II Gallery beneath their Union City, NJ, home. The gallery showcased and sold many of Donna's works, a testament to her talent and to the creative partnership that marked that chapter of her life.

Equally at home in the cosmos, Donna spent decades studying astrology - it wasn't just a hobby for Donna, it was a language. She drew charts and read them like love letters from the universe, offering anyone who was curious a glimpse into their life's star map. She saw people not just as they were, but as they could become.

And then there were the animals - her lifelong passion. Donna was the kind of woman who, if she had a dollar in her pocket, would hand over seventy-five cents to save a creature in need. Her house was never without a rescue or two - often five, and she loved each one with the same devotion. The way some people root for sports teams, Donna rooted for the voiceless. From her, the torch of compassion and protection for animals still burns brightly.

Music made her spirit soar. Donna loved to dance, and she did it like no one was watching - and even if they were, she wouldn't have cared. She was, at heart, a honey badger: bold, untamed, and utterly unwilling to be boxed in.

Donna is survived by her three children and six grandchildren, each of whom carries a different thread of her story forward.

True to form, Donna asked for no fuss and to be cremated. Her ashes may be scattered in some of her favorite places around the world - a thought that would have delighted her to no end. There won't be a funeral - that wasn't Donna's style. Instead, a celebration of her life will be held in early 2026, around her birthday. Think music, dancing, laughter, and toasts to the kind of woman who refused to live inside anyone else's lines. Bring your stories, your moves, and, if you feel called, a donation to an animal cause in her honor - she would have loved that. Donna will be remembered the way she wanted: with joy, freedom, peace, and love for all creatures great and small.

Donna's story isn't one of quiet conformity. It's one of color, sound, rebellion, and passion - a story told through the lives she touched, the animals she saved, and the trees that still hold her gaze.