Jillian McDonald facts for kids
Jillian McDonald is a talented artist and curator from Canada. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. Her art often uses humor and ideas from popular films. She creates art using videos, internet art, live performances, installations (art setups in a space), and photos.
Jillian is very interested in how people feel about famous people and how much they love their favorite stars (this is called fandom). She also explores themes and characters from horror films. Her recent art often includes zombies, the undead, masks, and paranormal experiences (things that seem spooky or unexplainable). These works are sometimes set in cold, northern places.
In some of her most famous pieces, Jillian changed romantic scenes from Hollywood movies. She added herself or other strange elements to films with actors like Billy Bob Thornton, Vincent Gallo, and Johnny Depp. This was her way of looking at how much people can become obsessed with celebrities.
In a piece called The Screaming, Jillian put herself into famous horror films like The Shining and Alien. In these scenes, she would scream at the monsters, trying to scare them away or even destroy them! Another fun work is Horror Makeup. For this, she put on zombie makeup while riding the subway, turning herself into a spooky character right in front of everyone.
What is Valley of the Deer?
One of Jillian McDonald's special art projects is called Valley of the Deer. This was an installation from 2013. It included a video with three screens, augmented reality (which mixes digital images with the real world), and drawings. She created this art while she was an artist-in-residence at the Glenfiddich International Artist Residency. The people starring in the video were real residents from Dufftown and other towns in Northern Scotland.
