Bio•sphere

I make anything that I can until I can’t anymore.
I try to make things that delight me, and hopefully they sometimes delight others too.
I also love to make awful things that are sometimes somehow beautiful.
Sometimes they’re just awful though and delight nobody.
I like to learn new things but also get better at old things.
I feel it is important to practice looking closely, critically, but also joyfully; to treat sight as you would listen to music or learn an instrument.

In an attempt to learn to see better, I earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) in InterMedia and Digital Arts and a BFA from Radford University. Originally from and still missing the Appalachian Mountains, I can now be found in or around Baltimore, Maryland and rather like it here.

Mary McCoy is an environmental artist and writer whose interdisciplinary work includes both indoor and outdoor installations, sculpture, artist’s books, drawing, and painting, often with the inclusion of text and with an emphasis on found natural materials. Her solo work and collaborations with Howard McCoy have been exhibited in the U.S., Ireland, Wales and New Zealand, notably at Adkins Arboretum, Ridgely, MD; Academy Art Museum, Easton, MD; Salisbury University, Salisbury, MD; Loyola College, Baltimore, MD; Cardigan Heritage Center, Cardigan, Wales; Spirit Square Arts Center, Charlotte, NC; C.A.G.E., Cincinnati, OH; Brody’s Gallery, Washington, DC; Georgetown College, Georgetown, KY; Gallery 10, Ltd., Washington, DC; and the International Sculpture Conference, Dublin, Ireland.

Her writings have been published in Orion Magazine’s Place Where You Live, Gargoyle Magazine, From Whispers to Roars, Bay to Ocean 2021 and 2022, Pen in Hand, and Salisbury University Art Galleries Here/Not Here–Art and Poetry of Place. Her artist’s books include four printed books, My Covert Home, The Turning Year, Iceland and Tree Tales, and numerous handmade artist’s books. She is a former art critic for The Washington Post, Sculpture, New Art Examiner, American Craft, and The Washington Review and currently writes for The Chestertown Spy and The Talbot Spy. She is the recipient of a 2022 Independent Artist Award in Literary Arts from the Maryland State Arts Council.