Juliana McDonald explores concepts of impermanence and fragility in a natural environment that is ever-changing and threatened by human encroachment. She develops her ideas through a combination of oil painting, large-scale paper collages, photo-based installations, and artist books. The textured surfaces of her paintings and the delicate materials used in the collages carry their own messages of transience and fluctuation. Through the materiality of her work, McDonald’s intention is to awaken a physical and emotional response that allows viewers to immerse themselves in a personal journey of visual discoveries and contemplation of meaning.

McDonald is a Fine Arts graduate from the University of Ottawa, magna cum laude (2000). She has shown her work in solo and group exhibitions throughout the Ottawa area, including the Sussex, the Karsh-Masson and the Ottawa School of Art (Orleans) galleries, and internationally in the Hague, Netherlands, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She has worked from her studio at the Enriched Bread Artists in Ottawa since 2000. McDonald is an active member of the local arts community, having served on numerous committees and boards, such as the Ottawa Arts Council, the Ottawa Art Gallery, and the Enriched Bread Artists. Her work is held in private, corporate and public collections, including the City of Ottawa’s Public Art Collection. She has self-published two artist’s books, “Observances, Following the Path: an artist’s journey” (2011) and “Monarch Pages” (2016).