virtuality art studio

Artist Biography:

Melissa Marcy is a Chicago area digital media artist, architect and owner of the Chicagoland art studio Virtuality. She was immersed in art and music from an early age, studying painting, classical piano, and drawing with her artistic family. In college she studied architecture, graduating with her masters at the age of 22 and earning licenses to practice both architecture and interior design four years later. After receiving additional training in 3d visualization software, she specialized in architectural visualization and opened her studio Virtuality. Since that time, Virtuality has evolved to also include Melissa’s passions for creative artwork, web design and photography.
Having started her career as an architect, she credits Frank Lloyd Wright as her greatest artistic influence, stating that she loved the purity of his forms, his respect for the natural world and the way in which he was able to carry his designs across many different mediums successfully. She also credits Ansel Adams, László Moholy-Nagy and Khalil Gibran as other important artistic influences.
Melissa describes her body of work as an artistic record of moments in time and space. She explains, “I try to capture the transient beauty found in both the untouched natural world and in everyday urban life. Many people are simply too busy or distracted to enjoy the beauty in the world around them, and it is especially for those people that I create my art.”

Education:

University of Illinois at Chicago: Bachelor of Arts In Architectural Studies, Concentration In Digital Media – 2001.
University of Illinois at Chicago: Master of Architecture – 2003.

Credentials:

Licensed Architect: IL – 2007.
Licensed Interior Designer: IL – 2007.