Several of the oldest trees on record grow on the grounds of Mac's childhood estate, a historic farm & farmhouse situated at the bend of Brandywine Creek in Pennsylvania. The thriving, abundant Pennsylvanian landscape was full of uniqueness and subtlety, withholding a large diversity of plants and animals systemically interrelated in a vibrant network. His lifelong passion and evolving relationship with nature took place there; it was this environment that led Mac to value the detail, chance, and change that's become emblematic of his landscape style.

Raised by a family of architects and horticulturists, he gained a deep appreciation for the arts and botany in his early life. He received a BA in Photography at Yale and an MFA at the School of Visual Arts. The art world instilled a passion for detail, acute observation, and conceptual practice, while presenting its own challenges regarding the applicability of photography in a broader context. 

Photography provided an entry point for considering the arrangement of material, texture, and light and their relationship to history: past, present, and future. Throughout his photography studies, Mac was concerned with imbuing a photographic work with enough detail that would allow for multiple readings, a work that could be revisited countless times, a work that demanded perpetual re-interpretation. 

Mac's desire for multifaceted art transitioned naturally into the broader picture of landscape, where the ever-changing nature of plants affords a range of imaginative and metaphorical association. His tactical, photographic eye found applicability in considering the relationships between form, organism, setting, and function in natural environments. 

With stylistic preferences for work that emphasizes transition and chance, he's defined Verdant as an organization that sees landscape as a platform to not only provide environmental, creative, and personal solutions, but to even challenge what a solution could be. His focus is to always grow, change, and, like landscape itself, transition into new forms and new arrangements that break patterns.