Coming from a large family of artists and craftsmen, Marcy has art in her blood. Both she and her mother are graduates of the Kansas City Art Institute. Marcy studied sculpture from instructor Jim Leedy, one of the founding leaders of the crossroads arts district in Kansas City. She also studied and apprenticed under the late Dale Eldred. While at the art institute, she experimented with multiple mediums and made good use of her artistic freedoms. It was there she found her love for clay.
“There’s something very satisfying and magical about the process of taking cold, damp clay from the earth and molding it with your hands into an art form. Then bringing it up to a glowing hot temperature in the kiln and ending up with a vitreous, beautiful piece of art.”
After graduation she studied abroad in Pietrasanta Italy. Enrico Marchetti, a one-armed sculptor from Camaiore, Italy, was one of the first people she met. He taught her that with determination anything was possible. Under his tutelage she learned the basics of marble carving. During her stay, she furthered her skills as a sculptor in the historical Studio Palla and Founderia Tomassi. There she worked along side Italian artisans learning the age-old skills of carving and casting bronze. The handmade tools that she used in Italy can be found in her studio today. She still uses them and is proud of their inherent beauty and function.
After returning to the United States she continued her education, as a scholarship student earning a master’s degree in Sculpture from Northern Illinois University. It was in DeKalb Illinois that she immersed herself in nature. Visiting the National Forest Preserves on a regular basis, she created award-winning sculptures made predominately of natural materials found from the forest. While attending school and elsewhere Marcy supported herself by working in the floral industry as a floral designer. Always a lover of nature, this floral influence is evident throughout her work and especially with her current work today in handmade ceramic flowers.
" I love that I am finally culminating all of my skills and labors together to make art. It's all starting to make sense now." - Marcy Lally
She currently sculpts using an array of animal skulls and hand-crafted ceramic clay flowers. These works of art suggest ephemeral beauty and the cyclical aspects of nature. She has exhibited in galleries nationally and internationally. Her work can be found amongst many private collectors and commercially-commissioned art projects.
Marcy Lally's art is currently exhibited at, Lemieux Galleries in New Orleans, Louisiana, Art For The People Gallery in Austin, Texas, Tough Luck Cowboy, Boulder Colorado and The Hobbs Building Studios in Kansas City, Missouri.
Marcy now resides in Mission, Kansas with her husband and two cats. She loves to garden, cook with, but mostly without a recipe, and participate in open studios at the historic Hobbs building in KCMO.
Her studio is open twice a year for open studios the second weekend of April and the second weekend of October or by appointment.