Dawn was born in the Midwest of Italian-Irish heritage. She is a self-taught artist with Midwestern sensibilities and a sophisticated eye for style. Dawn is the founder of Notre Monde, the elegant furniture company, which has become a direct expression of the artist's cheerful, ongoing immersion into various cultures through travel. Dawn draws her inspiration from extensive European travels and her experience of making a home in Russia and Western Europe before settling in Columbus, Ohio. The motifs and methods used in her products show their interest in the art and design of Eastern and Western Europe, but perhaps even more importantly, her respect for the ways other communities embrace the good life. Dawn has the fanciful stylistic intuition of an aesthete, though one firmly grounded in the disciplines of mural painting and contemporary art and design. She is melding luxury with practicality, in the spirit of decorative objects from 18th-century Europe to the present day.