McDonell’s recent paintings call to mind the hard edge abstraction of the 50s and 60s. Their colorful interlocking shapes are reminiscent of later compositions by Lorser Feitelson or Frederick Hammersly or even Ellsworth Kelly, however their pictorial information is not derived from any representational starting point, they are not abstracted. Rather, they are presented. They are sculptural paintings with a twist, containing all the standard formal qualities of color, line, weight, value and depth -  but the materials  are transformed by McDonell's skill, as he pours and molds everyday basic substances to make  these "paintings". The works  are loose in a way akin to more expressionist behaviors; the shapes that occupy most of the space are not geometric, and the edges of the canvases are sometimes festooned with controlled, chaotic drips — like distant constellations or confetti after a parade. Toeing a line between the cool-cerebral and hot-emotional, they are evocative, feeling as if a party has just begun or, perhaps, just ended.