About Face

The Patty McMullen-Mikles Art Gallery presents “The Meaning Crisis”. Artist J. Michael McDonald is a resident of Jerome for 27 years. McDonald turned to portraiture during COVID-19 shutdowns, trying to capture the effects of the unique circumstances on the human face.

He has 10 new pieces, with older works filling out the exhibit. “About Face,” he said, is mostly portraits of friends and neighbors and his interpretations of their expressions – “what we’re going through as a culture right now,” he said.

McDonald has always worked in a wide variety of media – “I’m not your traditional artist,” he said. His return to oil has helped him regain his confidence in fine art. It was not a vanity project; he said it was a way to express the emotions of the times. He calls his style magical realism.