The Alchemy Immersive
Collection
The Alchemy Immersive Collection is a groundbreaking series of multi-sensory art installations by contemporary artist Donna Isham, created in collaboration with award-winning musician Mark Isham, who provides original scores. The works combine large-scale paintings with cutting-edge projection-mapped animation and original soundscapes, integrating analog and digital methodologies across visual art, motion, and sound.
These installations explore themes of identity, connection, and the blurred boundary between illusion and reality. Through their collaboration, Donna Isham’s use of traditional and contemporary painting techniques on canvas and Mark Isham’s blending of classical musicality with electronic synthesizers—combined with digital projection-mapped animation—create transformative environments that bridge past, present, and future. The result is an experiential journey that transcends traditional artistic forms to engage and inspire, forging a link to a new and evocative art form.
Each installation includes an unique painting, an original musical score, and custom made animation, presented with a short-throw projector and a dedicated computer containing the digital assets. The system can be integrated with any sound system, allowing the work to be exhibited across a range of architectural and institutional contexts.
Gaze
Acrylic, graphite, oil stick, and charcoal on canvas, 78 x 115”, 2026
___
Gaze is a new work from Donna Isham's Alchemy Immersive Collection. A fragmented face stares directly back at the viewer, transforming the act of looking into a charged exchange between observer and subject.
Expanded through projection-mapped animation and an original score by Mark Isham, the painting becomes an immersive psychological encounter. Image, movement, and sound intensify the tension between intimacy and distance, voyeurism and empathy, asking whether we truly see another person or simply project our own assumptions onto them.
Rendered in vivid reds, yellows, blues, and soft neutrals, Gaze invites viewers to slow down, look beyond first impressions, and consider what it means to see - and be seen.
Equinox
Acrylic, graphite, oil stick, paper, and ink on canvas, Original Animation and Score, 72" x 127", 2026
___
Equinox explores the pursuit of balance between light and dark, action and stillness, the inner world and the demands of daily life. Inspired by the astronomical moment when day and night meet in equal measure, the work becomes a meditation on transition, renewal, and the ongoing effort to find harmony.
Projection-mapped animation and Mark Isham's original score expand the painting beyond its surface, suggesting the shifting rhythms of nature and the emotional thresholds we pass through. “Equinox” presents balance not as a fixed state, but as a living practice - continually sought, lost, and found again.
In the Darkness I Could Hear
Your Voice
Acrylic, oil, cold wax, and crayon canvas, Original Animation and Score, 67" x 113", 2026
___
In The Darkness I Could Hear Your Voice is an immersive work that merges abstract expressionism, ambient electronic music, and projection mapped animation. Against a deep black field, sweeping white forms, fractured lines, and flashes of color emerge and dissolve, as if briefly revealed before returning to darkness. These shifting images form a continuous cycle Isham calls Samsara, suggesting transformation as an ongoing process in which connection can still be found within darkness.
The music unfolds as a tale of romance and loss—an emotional journey of searching for the sound of a loved one within the darkness, guided by memory, longing, and resonance, and ultimately arriving at their discovery. A human voice calls out into the void, answered by a haunting melody and the resonant textures of vintage synthesizers, creating an atmospheric soundscape in which color, texture, and sound unfold together.
Imaginarium
Acrylic, graphite, spray paint, pastel on canvas, Original Animation and Score, 82” x 67” , 2026
___
Imaginarium explores the source of imagination and the moment when instinct becomes form. Color, gesture, and rhythm move between control and spontaneity as marks collide, dissolve, and reassemble across the canvas. Projection-mapped animation and an original score by Mark Isham activate the painting, allowing light, sound, and surface to interact. The result is an immersive environment in which color becomes energy, gesture becomes language, and creativity unfolds as a living, evolving force.
A fast-paced exploration of ambient and energetic music unfolds as a shifting world of possibility—where every moment opens into a new direction. It is a journey without a fixed path, a space of constant discovery where ideas spark, transform, and reconfigure in real time. From subtle, intuitive cues to exhilarating bursts of visual and sonic intensity, the work invites viewers into an ever-changing experience of perception and invention.
Seen
Acrylic, oil stick, graphite, charcoal on canvas, Original Animation and Score, 80” x 106” , 2025
**SOLD**
___
Seen presents the figure in quiet dialogue with luminous layers of graphite, oil stick, charcoal, and color. Both grounded and ethereal, the work explores presence, visibility, and the courage to exist without concealment.
Mark Isham's sensory score blends traditional instruments with vintage and contemporary synthesizers, mirroring the painting's tension between chaos and control. Through animation and sound, Seen becomes an immersive reflection on the moment when internal truth takes visible form.
Crimson³
Acrylic, graphite and charcoal on canvas, Original Animation and Score, 75” x 78”, 2025
**SOLD**
___
In Crimson³, color, light, and sound converge across the canvas. Projection-mapped animation extends Isham's gestural marks and saturated reds into motion, while Mark Isham's original score generates resonant harmonics that deepen the work's pulse.
The installation evokes earth, water, fire, and air, transforming a fixed painting into a living encounter between material and atmosphere. Crimson³ invites viewers to step inside its emotional energy, where the tangible gives way to the ephemeral.
Exploring all the harmonics that color can bring to life. Mark Isham creates an innovative soundscape that merges ambient, electronics and analog instrumentation to create this constantly evolving and emotionally charged sound palette.
Le Cirque
Acrylic, charcoal, oil stick on canvas, Original Animation and Score, 60" x 140" , 2024
**SOLD**
___
Le Cirque uses the circus as a metaphor for life's unpredictability - beauty and grit, thrill and danger, control and chaos. Isham merges figuration and abstraction through vivid color, angular black lines, layered shapes, and circular forms that suggest movement, shifting identity, and self-discovery.
Mark Isham's score blends strings, piano, percussion and celeste, and vintage and contemporary synthesizers. Together, painting, movement, and music transform Le Cirque into an immersive reflection on life's continual balancing act.
Glass Between Us
Acrylic, oil stick, charcoal on canvas, Original Animation and Score, 84" x 64" , 2024
___
Glass Between Us examines the distances people create - knowingly and unknowingly - in the search for connection, love, and belonging. Begun at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Aspen, the painting layers female forms, areas of color, fine marks, and bold dividing lines that alternately reveal and obscure the figures.
Mark Isham's score pairs ambient synthesizers with melodic instruments to evoke longing, harmony, and emotional separation. Projection-mapped animation further extends the work's fluidity, creating an immersive meditation on vulnerability, strength, connection, and disconnection.
Rooted in Heaven
Acrylic on canvas, Original Animation and Score, 60x48” , 2023
___
Rooted in Heaven is a stark black-and-white painting that explores the connection between the earthly and the divine. Through the interplay of light, shadow, texture, and form, Isham creates a sense of movement that is both grounded and transcendent.
Mark Isham's soundscape deepens the emotional journey, while restrained pulses of animation emerge through the painting. The work invites reflection on permanence, spirituality, and the possibility of finding elevation through stillness.
Alchemy
Acrylic, oil, spray paint, graphite, pen on canvas, Original Animation and Score, 68" x 118", 2023
___
Alchemy is inspired by the transformative mystique of ancient Chinese alchemy. Vivid reds, luminous golds, silvers, and deep blues evoke magic, transformation, and humanity's enduring pursuit of enlightenment.
Layered textures and symbolic color reference the alchemical dream of transforming base materials into gold. Projection-mapped animation brings the painted gestures into motion, while Mark Isham's original score creates a musical narrative of creation, possibility, and spiritual transformation. He utilizes vintage synthesizers, haunting melodies, and analog instrumentation to create this evolving journey of discovery.
Carousel
Acrylic, ink, graphite on canvas, Original Animation and Score, 61" x 71 1/2", 2023
___
Carousel draws on memories of childhood park visits and the exhilaration of carousel rides. Creamy yellows, muted blues, crimson, and pink capture the spinning motion of the ride and the emotional charge of nostalgia.
Isham likens life to a carousel - a continuous cycle of victories and losses, pleasure and uncertainty. Through projection-mapped animation and Mark Isham's original score, the painting becomes an immersive reflection on memory, movement, and the constantly changing rhythm of experience.
The music conjures up the childhood memories of being immersed in the fantastical images of a carousel—flying horses, other worlds, and melodies that carry you away.
Donna Isham, a Los Angeles-based contemporary artist, explores the strength and beauty of women in her figurative paintings and the emotive vibrancy of life through her expressive abstract paintings. A self-taught painter with a background in film and psychology from UC Berkeley, Isham transitioned from a Hollywood stylist to a contemporary artist, drawing inspiration from her travels and the observations of the human condition. Her work, known for its vibrant use of color and texture, seeks to connect with viewers on an emotional level. Isham's art appears in numerous global publications and her work is showcased in both private and corporate collections. She has exhibited in New York, Miami, Paris, Aspen, and Vienna, exploring her dedication to beauty, diversity, and the transformative power of art.
Mark Isham is an award-winning composer, jazz trumpeter, and recording artist. He is acclaimed for his significant contributions to film and television with his innovative musical scores. Known for his ability to blend unforgettable melodies with experimental sounds, Isham's work spans a variety of genres, earning him Grammy and Emmy awards, alongside Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. His compositions for films like "Judas and the Black Messiah," "Crash," and "A River Runs Through It" highlight his versatile talent. Collaborating with industry legends, Isham's scores have enhanced narratives for directors and artists worldwide. His recent projects include scoring for Hulu’s "The Godfather of Harlem."
