Arthur McDonald was a retired professor of theater, past Dean of the School of the Arts at the College of Charleston, a puppet historian, handmade paper artist, clay artist and writer.  He showed at Nina Lui and Friends Gallery until its closing.  He had a solo shows including in 2024 at this gallery. He passed away in February 2024.

In 1997 when Arthur McDonald was appointed a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Theatre at the College of Charleston, he turned from the performing arts to the visual arts.  He began by spending six weeks with five other papermakers in Burma, China and Thailand.  During the four weeks in Burma they worked in small villages learning the traditional ways of this ancient art form which was invented in China.  Since that 1998 visit he has worked with and observed papermakers in Bhutan, Laos and Tibet.  He enjoyed two artist residencies with Supan Promsen at his studio near Lampang, Thailand.  He studied further with Mina Takahashi at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina and at the Arrowmont Craft Center in Tennessee.  His work has appeared in regional exhibitions including one in Lexington, Kentucky entitled The Healing Power of Art.  He had a solo exhibition at Black Mountain Center for the Arts in North Carolina where he maintained a summer studio.  His current studio is in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.  He exhibited work in two galleries in Korea with a group of American Joomchi paper artists.  The work incorporated Korean techniques of paper design and construction.

Other exhibitions have been with Print Studio South, Cone 10, City Gallery at the Dock Street Theatre and the Saul Alexander Gallery.

Artist Statement

My work as a visual artist explores several textures.  There is pottery where I touch the earth, there is felt where I touch animals and there is paper where I touch plants.  I make paper from the inner bark of the kozo (paper mulberry) tree. This tree grows throughout Asia from Thailand to Japan.  The texture of the paper is influenced by the climate in which the kozo tree grows.  I use fiber imported from Thailand and after cooking the fiber and hand beating it I placed in in a vat of water.  Then the sheets are formed on molds.  The sheets are dried and then become the bases of my compositions.  Some of the individual sheets become statements in themselves and stand alone.  My work is informed by Asian culture and uses artifacts to extend the meanings of my compositions.  The works invite the viewer to enter into a conversation with the images and textures and create original meanings.