Amy McKay is a contemporary artist focused on object isolation, in an attempt to highlight and explore the unnoticed beauty of ordinary items in our everyday lives and how they represent memory, emotion and often, tension.

A native Californian, McKay earned a degree in Landscape Architecture from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Before becoming a full time artist, she worked as a landscape architect for 19 years, making art in her spare time while raising a family.

McKay’s inspiration comes not only everyday objects, but common experiences. She looks for the human connection we can feel through seeemingly banal subject matter. She considers the composition of each painting carefully, editing until the subject is featured in its best light, exploring the materials, textures and construction until the mundane becomes worthy of art. Given that we’re bombarded with negative news every day, McKay feels that there’s a magic in the ordinary, that can help us, not escape, but rather be present, and find joy and levity in the everyday.