By sculpting life into his art, Nick McDonald balances contemporary influences with the history of African art forms. In doing so, he traverses through inspiration in order to unearth his own identity as a Black artist. 

McDonald developed a knack for art as a child, sketching comic books and heroes while his talents grew alongside his age. Now, at 21, he looks back on the people and places that helped develop him into the artist he is today. 

In December 2022, McDonald graduated from Lyon College with degrees in Political Science and Art. Here, he learned the medium that would lend a hand to his future artwork.

“When I got to college, it was a lucky coincidence that Lyon was just starting its ceramics program,” McDonald said. “The professor for it came in the same year that I did.”

McDonald met Jamie Berry in his second semester at Lyon college. “We’ve been rocking ever since,” Mcdonald said with a smile. 

“He was receptive to me wanting to put in that effort to learn a medium. It’s almost like an apprenticeship in some ways. I would come through after class hours and see if I could help him in any way,” McDonald said. “I probably, especially at the beginning, did a lot more harm than good stuff. But he was always really patient with me, and so I was able to get the hang of it.”

Through ceramics during his college experience, McDonald became enthralled with 3D mediums. 

 “I was starting to develop a voice with ceramic,” McDonald said. “I wanted to add some more textures and things that clay wasn’t giving me. I’ve been getting into textiles and different fibers and natural materials to supplement the clay.

In his series, “Pops Said Don’t Play With Them Scabs,” in which all of his pieces are titled after rap lyrics, McDonald utilizes different textiles, such as leaves, cotton or wool textiles or jute fibers as a supplement. He began the series in June 2022 and ended in October. 

“It’s a small series in which I try to bring that concept to a focus. This series was me starting to develop a voice as a Black artist, in which all my figures are Black people, children specifically,” McDonald said. “A lot of the materials are natural, which I feel kind of reflects an African or Black sensibility.”

McDonald references historical African art, a majority of which has a Nigerian influence. “That’s where my dad thinks that we’re from. He’s big into genealogy.

“Conceptually, I want to be a Black artist. That’s what I’m striving for. So, I want to use all of these more humble materials and work them into finished pieces,” McDonald said. 

“I’m struggling to understand and put into perspective this massive swath of Black history and how it affects me in my daily life,” McDonald said. “And how I channel that through my different mediums.” 

McDonald is headed to the Penland School of Craft in North Carolina, where he will spend the next two years taking workshops, learning new techniques and showing his art in their galleries. Now, he looks to the future in anticipation of where it will take him. 

“I’ll definitely stick with the same themes. I’d like to work bigger, and I’d like to have more control over the textile work, the non-ceramic mediums. I want to gain this degree of technical mastery, because I feel like the concept is there,” McDonald said. 

“I like telling stories in my pieces, not just giving them abstract concepts. I was thinking of me and my little sister, and so I sculpt these little children out of clay. I wanted to put them in these African-esque garments in which they’re trying to fill the shoes or fill a sense of heritage by donning these suits and putting them on in a special way,” McDonald said. 

“A lot of them are eaten up by the suits,” McDonald said. “But they still wear them with a sense of dignity and pride. I’m trying to take in those influences and combine them with my influence of being a Black person, particularly in the South, and mesh all that history together into a more contact focus.”

McDonald also takes inspiration from classical, European-style figures. 

“I don’t feel like I should make them mutually exclusive,” McDonald said. “I feel like that would be disingenuous to who I am and what the history is. So, it’s me trying to blend those together by doing more European-style figures but with African costumes and materials.

“Sometimes it is more of a struggle to try to deal with all the different truths that come with that history. It’s not just like an abject horror of slavery, and it’s not all black joy, either. There’s a lot in between. A lot of causal cruelty and a lot more mundane happiness, as well. 

“I’m going through and trying to see the whole history without diluting it.”

To see more of McDonald’s work, check out his website at https://www.nicholas-malik.com/portfolio, or follow him on Instagram @nicholas_malik.