Sculptor, painter, and mixed media artist Marga Hayes McBride has been “making things” ever since she can remember. She has worked in the artistic field all of her life, beginning as a layout artist on Music Row in Nashville, TN, to becoming Art Director for one of the largest hospitals in the USA, St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix, AZ. She made the switch to fine art in 1988, working as a gallery assistant, manager, and finally Gallery Director for art galleries in Tennessee. While working in galleries by day, Marga studied drawing, painting, printmaking and sculpture at night at the University of Tennessee.
In 1995 she began showing her work professionally when she won “Best of Show” in a juried South Eastern Exhibition. Since that time, Marga has shown across the country in fine art galleries and museum exhibitions.
Highlights of her career came when she was chosen to exhibit at the international Sculptural Objects and Functional Art Show (SOFA) on the Navy Pier in Chicago, IL, received a four-piece, permanent public installation of a mixed media painting in the Convention Center for the City of Knoxville, TN, and then was featured on the national television show “Country Style” for the Home & Garden Network. She has been exhibited in galleries in Maine, Baltimore, California, Tennessee, Philadelphia, PA, Dallas & Austin, TX, Ann Arbor, MI, Madison WI, New Orleans, LA, Miami, FL, and Chicago IL. In 2016, Marga and her husband, Jay exhibited their work side by side in the Tennessee Arts Commission Gallery.
Over the years, Mrs. McBride has become known for her enthusiastic teaching skills in oil painting in Knoxville, TN, as well as her long-time association with Crystal Cruises for whom she has taught watercolor, collage, and acrylic painting to students all over the world.
Currently, Marga is producing figurative sculpture in clay, bronze, and aluminum. Her efforts have most recently been rewarded with the commission of a life-size figurative sculptural fountain and large-scale permanent installation of art-works for an outdoor courtyard at the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital unveiled in the Spring of 2015. A second site specific sculptural environment is set to be installed in the NICU at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital later in 2018.
