Bloom

Todd McDonald, associate professor of art, is a painter who finds extraordinary visual ideas in ordinary settings. The painting above, Bloom (oil on panel, 48 by 72 inches), is based on an image of a shopping-cart corral at a Bloom grocery store. “Through the elevation of everyday visual scenarios I draw comparisons to the history of visual spectacle to provoke discourse about how humanity finds meaning in everyday life,” McDonald says. The work of one of his students, Carly Drew, is featured here.