Donna Jo Massie was born in 1948, in the Great Smoky Mountains in Cherokee, North Carolina. She received a degree in Education from Auburn University and taught in Alabama and Florida before moving to Alberta in 1976 as Environmental Educator for Kananaskis Country. She makes frequent hiking trips into the mountains to collect material for her artwork, painting and sketching on location. In addition to painting, she also teaches popular adult watercolour classes, along with corporate and summer backcountry workshops in remote areas. She has been Artist in Residence at The Banff Centre's Leighton Artists' Colony and at the Columbia Icefields, and was International Peace Park Artist in Residence for Glacier National Park in the United States. Her work has been featured internationally in galleries and exhibitions in Canada and the United States, and her art can be found in private collections around the world. Donna Jo is a member of the Alberta Society of Artists, the Society of Canadian Artists and the Elmore County (Alabama) Art Guild and is an Honorary Member of the Canmore Art Guild. In 1988 she made art her full-time profession and currently operates a home studio in the Canadian Rocky Mountains in Canmore, Alberta.