2026 | Maine Artist Fellowship | Fine Craft Fellow

Artist Statement:

Jim Macdonald's marquetry compositions and wood art capture visual representations of ideas, memories, moments, personal truths, and revelations. With a reverence for trompe l'oeil, his work explores and expresses notions of elegance, balance, fairness of curve, visual weight, negative space, heft, intersections and connections. There is a long history in the embellishment of musical instruments, and Macdonald, who is also a musician, gives the world the most authentic form of self expression that he can muster when crafting his marquetry art guitars.

Bio:

For over 45 years, James Macdonald has happily created in wood-in various shops as a mold maker, guitarmaker, cabinetmaker, ship's carpenter, and boatbuilder, and then in his own wood design business (est. 1988) building custom furniture with intricate inlay work. In the early 1990s he studied the double bevel cutting style of marquetry with Silas Kopf, and went on to use this technique to create art and embellish his handcrafted electric guitars.

Notable past and present exhibitors and collectors of Macdonald's custom marquetry art guitars include the Gibson Custom Shop, Petros Guitars, Circa Guitars, the Allman Brother Big House Museum, Capricorn Studios, String Theory (Camden, ME) and Dream Guitars (Asheville, NC). Macdonald is an instructor at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport and WoodenBoat School in Brooklin. He has taught workshops at the Carpenters Boat Shop, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Snowfarm (Williamsburg, MA), and Anderson Ranch Arts Center (Snowmass Village, CO), among others.

Recent exhibitions include Out of Bounds: The Art of Croquet at the Messler Gallery (Rockport, ME) and the Museum for Art in Wood (Philadelphia,PA), Marquetry Today at Winterthur Museum (Winterthur, DE), and Maine Wood 2024 and 2026 at the Messler Gallery. In 2025, Macdonald curated Free Verse: Explorations in Contemporary Marquetry with the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship. The exhibition included marquetry works from 21 international wood artists and will be featured in a 2026 catalog published by the Center. Macdonald also collaborates on mixed media sculpture and installations as Bunkhouse Studio with his wife Lucky Platt. He lives and works on the shores of Lake Winnecook in Burnham, Maine.

On winning a Maine Artist Fellowship:

I'm thrilled, proud, and beyond grateful to receive the 2026 Fine Craft Fellowship. Maine is a wonderful place to play, to create, and to live a meaningful life. I've met and worked with so many talented craftspeople since I built my home here in the early 80s.-initially through the mentorship and camaraderie of the Kennebec Valley Woodworkers Association, and also with the Maine Crafts Association and the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship.

Artist Image Gallery: