Architect and artist Mac Ball finds inspiration in the landscape and waterways of southern Louisiana. Born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina, Ball has painted since his teenage years, vacillating between abstraction and realism over time. The artist's paintings are modernistic with their reduced color palette and his angular, sketchy brushwork, and yet he retains the sense of place and narrative qualities of the landscape. Also known in New Orleans for his architectural work, Ball graduated from the University of North Carolina with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1975. He attended the Yale School of Architecture where he won the William Wirt Winchester Traveling Fellowship and received a Master of Architecture in 1978. Before forming Waggonner & Ball Architects in 1989 with J. David Waggonner III, he worked for Cesar Pelli and Associates from 1979 to 1986. He has taught architectural design at Yale and Tulane Universities and has been inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects. After a long and celebrated career, Mac retired from architecture in 2020.