Marcella Creates!

by Tracy McCoy

“Creativity

It was 1972 when Robert and Marcella Massung bought a piece of land in Macon County, North Carolina. Having visited Franklin on a camping trip, the Miami, Florida couple liked it so well that before they left to go back home, they put a down payment of $100 on a piece of land and then went home to figure out how they’d pay for it. They ended up selling that property to a family member and buying a second piece where they built their home. Five children, eleven grandchildren, 14 great grandchildren and 6 great-great grands later this woman is thriving and with a big smile on her face she said, “I have to work on or make something everyday or I am not happy. I have been making things my whole life but not like I am today.”

After losing her husband in 2002 she found herself looking for something to occupy her days. She began collecting more items to repurpose into art. As human beings we accumulate stuff and we dispose of it by donating it or selling it and we buy more stuff. Marcella and close friend and glass artist John Phillips found a mecca for creativity and art through Asheville’s Goodwill Outlet Store. Pallets of donated items come in and merchandise is sold for $1.49 per pound and Marcella is waiting at the door when they open. She also finds her art supplies at yard sales and thrift stores, where she “treasure hunts” with John.

“The bottom floor of my home has been consumed by my treasures. It is all organized and shelved waiting to be used. I’am 91 years young and to use all of the items I’ve collected I’ll have to live to be 200!” Marcella said with a smile. You’d never know she is a great-great-great grandmother. She is love ly and filled with joy and a little spunk! She loves taking pieces that have a story and putting them all together into a piece of art. Better than that is when someone sees something special about a piece and makes it theirs. One of her biggest fans is a young lady by the name of Essie who has filled her room with Marcella’s art. Essie and her friends, in their teens, love Marcella’s work, but they are not alone. Marcella told me about a piece she sold to an unlikely collector, “I had a piece in Highlands and there was a lady who was so interested but admitted that my art didn’t go with her décor. She left and then came back and said the piece spoke to her and she couldn’t go home without it.”

So what does Marcella make? Well, she is very diverse. She makes glass art with John from Fire & Light Glass Studio, she sews dolls, makes clothes, knits scarves, and creates keepsake art. She has always made things and much of it used to be “cutsy things” but she told me that is not what she makes today. “I never know what it’s going to be until I am done. Piece by piece she adheres items to whatever “canvas” she chooses, using DAP wall plaster and Aleene’s Tacky Glue. Perhaps it is watches worn by men or women decades earlier put together with a message that time is precious or a tribute to the people who wore them. Art is something different to everyone who sees it. One of Marcella’s most popu lar offerings is memory bottles that she creates for people who want to preserve things they have from someone special that has died or moved on. She affixes the items to a bottle creating a piece of art that they can keep to remember spe cial times.

“Walking into Marcella’s is like walking into a wonderland,” says Janice Cummings of Creative Framing. “You can’t see everything that is there. We sell her art in our gallery and people love it.” Marcella had a shop at her home but few people knew it was there so putting her art at Creative Framing works out better for her. Creative Framing is located at 482 Depot Street in Franklin, North Carolina.