Janice McDonald makes elegant, abstract collages from repurposed paper and packaging. As the child of a family that moved all over the US (living in 8 cities before starting high school), Janice surmises that her affinity for the collage aesthetic may have come from piecing together all thosee disparate experiences. She earned a BFA, with a concentration in design, from Oregon State University and then had a graphic design practice in Denver, Colorado for many years.
In the late 1990s Janice began to experiment with hand-made collage as a creative counterpoint to computer-based design work. Since then, she has become an indefatigable collector of obscure and overlooked materials, ripping elements of color and texture from their original context to re-purpose in her work. Recently Janice has explored adding marks, asemic writing, and bits of text to her collage compositions. For more than five years, Janice has also maintained a practice of making a small collage every day in a dated diary.
Rearranged reality, assembled moments, and constructed views materialize. Janice’s work often explores concepts of time/balance, growth and environment. Her work has been widely exhibited — her collages find homes with individual collectors, in site-specific commissions, and in corporate collections.
(All images ©Janice McDonald.)
