"America is tired of lofty, unapproachable work. Dawn is as down to earth and approachable as her paintings. Like the surface of a lake, her paintings have a depth not apparent at first glance. At the outset, it appears simple: a still-life of fruit, for example. But the longer you look at it the more you see. It’s incredibly intoxicating.” - A. Smith, collector.

At once classical and lyrical, realistic and expressionistic, Stafford’s paintings display a refined, individualized interpretation of the sensual world around her. With a baroque concentration she conveys a deep concern for the process of painting., transforming her subjects with opulent colors and facility of design that have become the hallmark of her work.

Stafford’s formal education began at Swain School of Design in Massachusetts (one of the oldest art schools in the United States, est. 1881), where she studied drawing and painting with Severin (Sig) Haines (Yale University) and David Loeffler Smith (Cranbrook Acadamy of Art), a student of Hans Hofmann and Stefan A. Hirsch. At Swain she explored a multidisciplinary approach to art and design which included discipline in the mediums of clay, fiber and wood. In 1991 she graduated and in 1992 moved to Saugatuck, Michigan, home of Ox-bow School of Art (an affiliate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago) a beautiful art and resort community built upon the sand dunes of Lake Michigan. Over the past 14 years Stafford has created hundreds of oil paintings, always inspired and renewed by the natural landscape and timeless waters of the lake. She is respected as a talented, dedicated and prolific artist whose signature style has captured the attention of collectors, both regionally and nationally.