His work subject matters are the social troubles of the time. For example, Donahue began using naval teaching models from the early 1940’s as still life objects in drawings and paintings in the seventies. In subsequent years, midtown Manhattan architecture became the inspiration for constructing three-dimensional objects made from metal and wood. These object then sized with a white undercoating, and were regarded as blank canvases, which would then be painted with a variety of colors.