The next story originally appeared within the spring 2025 difficulty of the W&M Alumni Journal. – Ed.
Connie Warren Desaulniers ’75, P ’92 doesn’t simply imagine within the energy of reinvention — she lives it. A former high quality arts main with a head for enterprise, a marketer turned entrepreneur turned full-time artist, she’s spent a lifetime weaving collectively creativity and commerce to form a life as colourful as considered one of her signature silk scarves.
Immediately, she channels that lifelong mix of artistry and entrepreneurship right into a vibrant profession as a painter, designer and inventive drive rooted within the Williamsburg group.
Desaulniers’ coronary heart has all the time been in Williamsburg, though the ultimate cease on her path earlier than arriving at William & Mary was West Lafayette, Indiana. Her connection to Williamsburg was formed by childhood college journeys and her mom’s enduring affection for the realm. That bond grew even stronger when her father, William H. Warren P ’75, G ’92, was employed as a enterprise professor at William & Mary throughout her senior 12 months of highschool. It was his steerage that finally led Desaulniers to pursue a liberal arts training at W&M.
“He satisfied me it will open extra doorways,” she remembers. And it did.
As a scholar at W&M, she dove into high quality arts and enterprise programs — an uncommon mixture on the time, however one that will outline her profession. She ran the Kappa Kappa Gamma consuming membership and labored at The Toymaker of Williamsburg in Retailers Sq. all through school. Then, as Busch Gardens ready to open throughout her senior 12 months, a roommate tipped her off a couple of advertising job on the park. Desaulniers bought the job and spent the following 14 years serving to form the identification of what would turn out to be one of many area’s most iconic theme parks.
“It was very experimental at the start,” she says. “The oldest individual there was 32, and we thought he was historical.”
From Busch Gardens, she launched her personal advertising agency, By Design Advertising and marketing and Promotions, targeted on journey, meals and the humanities, which she ran for an additional 14 years.
“Ultimately, although, I burned out managing individuals and couldn’t use my inventive juices,” she says. “I wanted one thing that was mine.”
In 2005, she leaped — this time into full-time artwork. Her work is daring, whimsical and expressive. Educated to “paint what you see,” she now prefers to color what she feels. “That’s when artwork turned enjoyable once more,” she says.
Her commissioned portraits at William & Mary embrace President Emeritus Tim Sullivan ’66, Ball Professor of Legislation Emeritus John Donaldson J.D. ’63 and Edward Travis B.C.L. ’54, the primary Black graduate of W&M Legislation Faculty.
“I like portray individuals doing what they love,” she says. “Not simply them sitting in a boardroom.”
Williamsburg’s culinary scene has additionally benefited from Desaulniers’ creativity. She was the overall supervisor of Mad About Chocolate, a beloved cafe and artwork gallery the place desserts had been decadent, the partitions had been colourful and laughter was the day’s particular.
She dealt with the advertising for the café whereas her husband, Marcel Desaulniers HON ’01, P ’92 — the legendary chef and “guru of ganache” behind the Dying by Chocolate dessert and cookbook — developed the recipes. Marcel, who passed away last spring, was a towering presence within the culinary world, with a profession that spanned Manhattan kitchens and Williamsburg attraction. The Trellis, a landmark restaurant which he co-owned and operated for almost three a long time, was acclaimed for its creative menu.
His passing marked a tough chapter but in addition a turning level for Connie. “I’m getting again into artwork after a while,” she says. “It’s time for the remedy and pleasure that portray brings.” Her current exhibits, together with a collaborative exhibition with Kathy Yankovich Hornsby ’79 on the Stryker Middle, have drawn consideration for his or her vibrancy. Desaulniers’ new artwork, scarves, prints and clothes will quickly be obtainable by her web site, Moonshadow Art & Design.
Desaulniers stays deeply related to William & Mary. Over time, she has embraced quite a few volunteer roles, together with serving on the Class of 1975 50th Reunion Committee. Her dedication additionally extends to philanthropic help corresponding to a beneficiant reward to the Class of 1975 Faculty of Computing, Knowledge Sciences & Physics Speaker Sequence Endowment — a significant funding in the way forward for her alma mater.
“Who is aware of the place I’d be if I hadn’t gone to William & Mary?” she says.
For Connie Desaulniers, life, like artwork — is all about embracing the sudden turns, mixing magnificence with technique and by no means being afraid to color over what’s not working. In any case, “There’s no such factor as a failed portray. Simply one other layer to color on.”
