Margo McCreary

I’m glad to join the vibrant Northeast arts community. We need each other!

Living a creative life was my hope even before I had landed on a medium, and living into being an artist has been a process like art itself. The Twin Cities felt like fertile ground for finding a creative pursuit. I was a fresh arrival from Cleveland, Ohio in 1974. I was a White kid in a candy shop operating out of the privilege of doing anything I wanted. Young adults didn’t need as much earnings as one does now. There was so much grassroots theater, music, visual arts, creative spaces, and coops of all sorts. I joined “Powderhorn Puppet Theatre” that was operating out of the basement of Walker Church. Puppetry became my career for 45 years. I taught art residencies as a puppeteer all over Minnesota, and I have toured original shows as well. My puppetry has the distinction of being character based, which means I have created shows around particular characters that I have used for years.

In the past 5 years I have retired from doing residencies, and paused doing puppet shows. I have continued with my creative work/exploration in the form of abstract drawing/painting. I have always painted and drawn, and, 5 years ago, started to use my visual art to process grief. Art is so useful that way. Those paintings were cathartic and involving, and have led me through a changing visual process of finding a body of work that is visceral. I have managed to trust the process fairly well, and keep going. My art work comes from inside me. Now I am quite excited to use my visual art in a puppet show and see what the heck the puppets will do moving through the 3D worlds. (During the pandemic I cut up some drawing to make dioramas that were intriguing.) Anyways, onward. Change persists!!