Mary Mackey has earned an Associate Degree from the Colorado Institute of Art. She began her career in the visual arts with a focus on photography. After earning her degree she began working as a freelance fashion photographer and photojournalist.

Her artistic influences consist primarily of the post war modern American artists. Therefore, her work has been primarily abstract. In the mid 1980s she was introduced to print making and began to incorporate her photographs as collage elements into the mono printing process.

In 1986 she began traveling to Europe. In 1989 she moved to London to teach and worked as a professional photographer. She then moved to Berlin and became involved in “The East Side Gallery” - the largest open air gallery in the world, and a memorial to the Fall of the Berlin Wall); she participated as an artist and a photographer.

She returned to Denver in 1991 and opened The Mackey Gallery which was devoted to displaying mid-career artists - it became known as one of Denver’s best galleries. In 2000 she closed the gallery to return to her own work full time.

She is represented by many art consultant firms in and outside the US.