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 watercolor 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.