BIOGRAPHICAL and PRESS PORTFOLIO

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                DONNA & JAMES DAUGHERTY
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PART 1: DONNA "DONET'" DAUGHERTY - OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY
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Donna Daugherty (known professionally by her artist moniker Donet’) is an American visual artist, cartoonist, author, minimalist homesteader, and registered Intensive Care Unit (ICU) critical care nurse. She is the co-founder of Happy Fish Gallery in Navarre, Florida, alongside her husband, abstract artist and musician James Daugherty. Her extensive literary and commercial art catalog is published through PWPMall. Daugherty’s multidisciplinary portfolio spans specialized medical literature, speculative fiction, children's media, and character illustration inflected by her coastal environment and homesteading lifestyle.

Early Life and Healthcare Career
Daugherty has spent the majority of her life writing, early on composing poems, lyrics, and short stories. Professionally, she established a foundational career in the healthcare sector, working on the frontlines as an ICU critical care nurse. Her observations of clinical settings, workplace communication, and hospital dynamics heavily inspired both her written non-fiction work and her satirical medical cartooning lines.

Literary Career
Daugherty's written work is highly diverse and spans professional reference, speculative fiction, children's media, and inspirational poetry. All of her commercial properties are managed and distributed via the publisher PWPMall.

* Healthcare & Professional Literature: In January 2014, Daugherty published her prominent guide, "How To Be A Successful Travel Nurse (Travel Nursing Series)", through PWPMall. Written from her perspective as an experienced RN, the book serves as a practical, humorous, and satirical navigational tool for nurses entering short-term hospital contracts. The text integrates anonymous survey data and informal polls from working nurses to outline unwritten unit rules, administrative pitfalls, and lifestyle tips to help new contractors avoid losing their assignments.
* Creative Writing and Multi-Genre Portfolio: Beyond her medical writing, Daugherty's literary career spans several distinct genres including Speculative Fiction (science fiction and general contemporary fiction novels), Children's Media (children's stories, coloring books, and novelty songs), and Poetry & Music (Christian spiritual songs, theological books, and all-occasion poetry collections).

Copyright Advocacy & Federal Testimony
In 2005, Daugherty emerged as a prominent grass-roots voice in national copyright reform during the U.S. Copyright Office Orphan Works Project. Representing Christian Recording Studio (Fort Oglethorpe, GA), she submitted critical written briefs (Comment OW0013) detailing how restrictive copyright structures inadvertently penalized everyday independent musicians, preachers, and local creators who lacked corporate legal departments.

Her specialized perspective garnered national media attention, leading to a featured interview on NPR News in an investigative segment titled "Orphan Arty." Prior to her media appearances, Daugherty was invited to Washington, D.C., where she sat as an expert panelist during the live Library of Congress Public Hearings on July 26, 2005. Testifying alongside the National Cartoonist Society and the Society of Illustrators, Daugherty successfully advocated for better public copyright education and fought against regulatory structures that would impose cost-prohibitive administrative burdens on independent art spaces. Her live federal testimony and data-driven insight were subsequently cited and supported by digital freedom organizations, including formal backing from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation in their congressional replies.

Art and Happy Fish Gallery
Daugherty runs her artistic practice under the trade moniker Donet’ out of Happy Fish Gallery. Self-described as "Bohemian artists," Daugherty and her husband operate the brand in tandem with a minimalist, prepper-survivalist backyard mini-homestead known colloquially as the Fluffy Butt Chicken Ranch. Her daily routines on the homestead—raising silkie chickens and interacting with domestic animals—frequently serve as direct narrative inspiration for her illustrations.

Originally functioning as a digital and studio property, Happy Fish Gallery officially opened its dedicated physical storefront inside The Market in Midway (located at 4531 Gulf Breeze Parkway in Gulf Breeze, Florida) on February 12, 2026. Her visual catalog features bold, high-vibrancy acrylic paintings on canvas, which are regularly adapted into stationery, papercrafts, home decor, and physical lifestyle products.

Cartooning and Character Properties
Daugherty acts as both the illustrator and writer for several prominent cartoon series published by PWPMall. These illustrated characters are adapted across a variety of consumer goods, junk journal ephemera, and coloring books, most notably:
* "Nurse Hazel" Cartoons: A satirical, character-driven illustration line drawing from her professional medical observations and nurse culture.
* "Sissy and Her Cat Scratch" Cartoons: A whimsical, animal-centered cartoon line.
* Sea Monsters & Coastal Art: Folk-art style illustrations celebrating maritime folklore, regional Gulf coast marine life, and whimsical seaside landscapes.

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PART 2: JAMES "JIMMY JAMES" DAUGHERTY - OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY
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James L. Daugherty (known artistically as Jimmy James) is an American multi-instrumental musician, studio arranger, composer, and instrument artisan. He is the co-owner of Happy Fish Gallery based in Navarre, Florida, which he operates alongside his wife, author and visual artist Donna Daugherty. Daugherty specializes in the production, architectural orchestration, and digital licensing of devotional, holiday, and traditional Southern Gospel music portfolios.

Musical Career and Regional Cross-Border Touring
Daugherty spent decades traveling extensively as a professional roots and devotional musician. Performing across regional venues, ministries, and traditional roots festivals, his experience on the road heavily shaped his style, performance methodology, and eventual mastery of folk and gospel orchestration. 

Notably, Daugherty established a historic presence within the regional gospel landscape as the only white lead guitarist in the greater Chattanooga area to perform with an all-Black gospel group, "Truly Blessed" around 2005. Playing lead guitar for Truly Blessed required an advanced mastery of traditional Black gospel cadence, emotional phrasing, and highly technical fretwork.

In 2007, Daugherty and the group Dixie Praise, performed live at the prestigious Southern Gospel Quartet Convention showcases held in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Performing at gospel music's largest and most celebrated annual industry gathering solidified his reputation as an elite studio-grade guitarist.

Community Leadership & Cultural Preservation
Deeply invested in the preservation of traditional Southern heritage and roots music, Daugherty and his wife, Donna, spent a decade (2000–2010) serving as the official coordinators for the prominent Gospel Music Stage at the historic Prater's Mill Country Fair in Varnell, Georgia. The antebellum 1855 grist mill site relies heavily on its festival programming to fund its educational and historic landmark preservation efforts. Over their ten-year tenure managing the stage, the duo directed, scheduled, and curated live, continuous acoustic showcases for regional Southern Gospel artists, community choirs, and independent ministries. 

Stock Music & Commercial Sync Licensing
Daugherty maintains a significant digital presence as an independent commercial arranger and engineer. He co-engineered the historic digital streaming launch for Radio Station WJOC 1490 AM out of Rossville, Georgia in 1999, establishing WJOC as the very first radio station in the broader Chattanooga market to broadcast a live, continuous 24/7 feed to a global internet audience.

He has constructed and published a comprehensive microstock library of specialized background scoring, instrumental hymnals, and synchronization tracks distributed globally via AudioMicro, Inc. His commercial compositions focus heavily on a sweeping Christmas Carols Portfolio and a Sacred & Southern Gospel Portfolio. 

Daugherty's studio performance achieved national broadcast recognition when production teams representing the ABC and Hallmark Channel networks officially contacted the studio to license his tracks for television synchronization. The networks sought out his signature recording of the historic 1879 acoustic hymn "Unclouded Day" (originally composed by Josiah Kelley Alwood), which features Daugherty’s own custom multi-instrumental arrangement and lead vocal performance.

Collaborative Songwriting Partnerships
Operating a close production environment with his wife Donna out of Christian Recording Studio in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, the pair established an active, long-term songwriting partnership. Operating as a co-author team, the duo composed and produced dozens of original gospel works and contemporary spiritual songs distributed through publisher PWPMall. Operating at the structural crossroads of the local scene, the studio also served as a vital early tracking space for developing local vocalists, notably recording future country music superstar and Grand Ole Opry member Lauren Alaina during her youth, long before her national breakout on American Idol.