Jon McDonald is a painter, illustrator, and educator. He retired in 2020 from Kendall College of Art and Design (KCAD), where during his 40-year career he served as Chair of the Illustration Department. McDonald grew up in Grand Haven where upon seeing a Black portrait painter at a fair, he became inspired to explore art, leading him to study illustration at KCAD and earn a master’s degree in fine art from the San Francisco Art Institute. McDonald’s work can be seen throughout West Michigan, including the wall-sized mural of 1890s Grand Rapids at the Grand Rapids Public Museum and pieces at the Muskegon Museum of Art, Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital, and the Grand Haven High School Fieldhouse.