a b o u t    t h e    w o r k

“I try to make quiet things… There is a need for silent, expansive … images in an increasingly noisy and spiritually insular world.”

“Color and light are for me things and thoughts, substance, and phenomena… I’m interested in what we see, what we do not see, what we imagine we see.”

-the artist, 2010

For decades, I’ve undertaken site-specific “intuitive explorations” of landscapes and things in landscapes. Water is physically or metaphorically present throughout my practice. Creating a dialogue with ideas of belonging and remembrance, my work is intentionally meditative, grounded in how and where I live, a visual record of relationships - human, (pre)historic, poetic - that exist or have existed between people, objects, plants, animals, and real or imagined places.

My work is time-based, often a series, including stories and texts stored as “book blogs”, broadsides, handmade books, paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, photos, GIFS, and short “experiential” videos.

In the past, I translated my experiences into interrelated images/ objects, using spiritually significant numbers.

Recently, series numbers and time lengths have become changeable, and much more intuitive. The text has become very important.

On May 5th, 2023 a three-year COVID memorial series of black and white photos ended. I continue to add photos as a response to long COVID cases.  

In June, I began editing a collection of 30 short, short mythic narratives with images. I  continue to work on other narrative series.

In 2025, I have continued to write, also experimenting with small objects and books, as well as returning to painting.

M  a  r  s  h  a    M  c  D  o  n  a  l  d

Marsha McDonald has lived in the United States, South Korea, Japan, and Portugal, working as an artist and teacher in America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. She has collaborated, in performance, text, and images, with writers, poets, and composers. She lives in Vilar do Andorinho, Portugal.

2025 CV