In The Pines
Tim McDonald
Curated by: Keri Straka and Ellie Krakow
April 10 - May 06, 2026
Tim McDonald is an artist and soon-to-be retired professor at Framingham State University where he has taught painting and drawing courses since 2006. He received B.A.s in Studio Art and English from the University of Rhode Island in 1983, and an M.F.A. in Painting from East Tennessee State University in 2005.
Artist Statement:
In the pines takes its name from the traditional American folk song; more for its atmosphere than content. The work is born out of a free-floating longing; the grief and the whatness of ordinary objects; the ineffable mystery hidden in the everyday; and, at the same time, it’s as if the Bugs Bunny Roadrunner Hour were extruded through a Zen kōan into a space where wildness and culture, its myths, rituals, music, and poetry come together like spokes in the hub of a great wheel. Having been painting and drawing for several decades, I feel that I am finally making some progress; more fully realizing a visual language that I can trust; that I can have faith in. Which is to say, that although my doubt is boundless, I persist in turning that wheel.
Artist Statement:
In the pines takes its name from the traditional American folk song; more for its atmosphere than content. The work is born out of a free-floating longing; the grief and the whatness of ordinary objects; the ineffable mystery hidden in the everyday; and, at the same time, it’s as if the Bugs Bunny Roadrunner Hour were extruded through a Zen kōan into a space where wildness and culture, its myths, rituals, music, and poetry come together like spokes in the hub of a great wheel. Having been painting and drawing for several decades, I feel that I am finally making some progress; more fully realizing a visual language that I can trust; that I can have faith in. Which is to say, that although my doubt is boundless, I persist in turning that wheel.
