Hello, and welcome to my interim website!

I am an American artist, writer, and editor. Along with my daughter, I have been living in Florence for over eighteen years. I fell in love with this city—or, rather, the idea of it—while earning my Bachelor of Architecture. It was several years before I finally had the chance to visit, but I was enchanted from my first walk through Florence. Experiencing a place on foot—following the curves of narrow streets as they led into broad piazzas, encountering art and architecture at every turn, smelling coffee mingling with the scent of meats grilling and vegetables roasting, hearing the music of church bells filling the air—this was what I had always hoped for in a city.

A four-month stay while researching a book about Florence’s piazzas turned into six months, then a year. The Piazzas of Florence was published by Murdoch Books a few years later (Sydney & London, 2008), and by then Florence had become home.

Whether I’m working with language, paper, images, or paint, it’s the process and effect of layering that most fascinates me—undoubtably one of the reasons I am so happily immersed in the intricately layered city of Florence. My background in architecture has lent a voice not only to my writing but also to my paintings and photographs. Sometimes my work takes the form of one-of-a-kind books, and I love how these multimedia pieces offer a chance to bring together so many elements: text, illustrations, photographs, and graphic design. I view books as places to inhabit, much in the same way that buildings are.

At the moment, I’m working on a nonfiction book and a collection of poems. I just completed the Professional Sequence in Editing through UC Berkeley and am now helping others to polish their writing as well.

The links along the bottom of this page will take you to some of my past studio work, but please check back later this year for the link to my new website. In the meanwhile, I can be contacted at studio@lisa-mcgarry.com (lisa at lisa hyphen mcgarry dot com).

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Lisa McGarry