Mary Mattingly

Mary Mattingly builds shelters for an uncertain future. She imagines what we might need to carry with us, how we might grow food together, and where we will find clean water. Her work takes the form of wearable homes you can live in, or floating gardens that drift on public waterways. She once turned a barge in New York City into a living food forest called "Swale," where anyone could come and pick free food. This was not a symbol. It was a real garden that challenged the very idea that foraging in a city could be illegal. She built a new kind of commons, right on the water.

Mattingly's art is guided by a quiet belief that our survival is a collective act. She shows us that ecology is not an abstract concept. It is the water we drink, the food we share, and the homes we build together. Her work makes the invisible work of care visible and essential. In her hands, the practical tasks of staying alive become a form of art and a form of love. She does not just warn us about what might be lost. She shows us what we might become, building small, hopeful worlds where people and the planet can nurture each other.