Macdonald has been a practicing artist since the mid-1990s. Since 2013 she has made paintings of reflected rain in various guises. Between 2013 and 2017, her work exhibited metaphorical associations of inversion and reflection, such as states of disorientation. In 2018, she shifted focus by 'zooming in' closer, capturing raindrops circling onto groundwater. These newer paintings fracture previously legible images into ripples. Originating in
drawing and
photography, she engages with analog and digital, moving between collage, photocopies, projections, tracings, and drawing. She then uses paint diluted with
stand oil and
neo-megilp on neutral-toned
linen creating a sheen that emulates the surface of water. Macdonald makes drawings inspired by
row coverings and
cold frames dotted around the local
Western Massachusetts landscape. She uses both small, intimate (5 in. x 9 in.) and large, physical (up to 8 feet wide) scales in her work. Her current (as of 2020) painting series are titled
Sky on Ground and
Ground Covering, where "ground" is both a noun and a verb: the earth beneath our feet, and the act of anchoring and situating a body in place. Her work is influenced by many sources including the
Kano School, particularly the work of
Kano Tanyu, Latvian artist
Vija Celmins, and Chicago artist and former professor
Julia Fish. Since 2008, Macdonald has been represented by Cynthia-Reeves Gallery in
New Hampshire.
Selected exhibitions ;Solo • Tarble Arts Center at
Eastern Illinois University (2015) •
Roswell Museum and Art Center, Roswell, New Mexico (2011) • Cleve Carney Museum of Art at the
College of DuPage, Illinois (2007) In May, 2021, she will open a solo show at the Zillman Art Museum at the
University of Maine. ;Group • Duxbury
Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, Massachusetts (2019) •
Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago, Illinois (2018) •
Lynden Sculpture Garden, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (2012) •
Glenbow Art Museum, Calgary, Alberta (2011) •
McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton, Ontario (2011) • Telfair Art Museum, Savannah, Georgia (2006) She was the
Roswell Artist-in-Residence in 2010–2011.
Other Macdonald frequently presents her research in public lectures, symposia and panels, including at the
College Art Association Conference and the
Vermont Studio Center. She has been a visiting artist over fifty times including international venues such as
Massey University (
Wellington, New Zealand),
University of Alberta and
University of Calgary (
Alberta, Canada), and
McMaster University (
Ontario, Canada). ==Personal life==