Mrs. Gretchen Lally has been interested in art since kindergarten. She’s always found drawing and painting interesting, and she’s always loved playing with paints as a kid. 

Mrs. Lally went to Boston University of Fine Arts for four years and earned her Masters degree in art education.  She previously went to Lesley University in Massachusetts and got her Bachelor’s degree in illustration. 

Mrs Lally is also a former Lancer; she attended Waterford High School, class of 2000. She had Mr. Fioravanti for the marching and concert band (she was a color guard),  took Problems of Democracy with Mr. Gamble, and took cooking class with Mrs. Montanaro. Mrs. Lally also came back to the high school in 2007 for her student teaching. Being a teacher here now she says the building is bigger than how she remembers it and the experience of being a student then a teacher is so different: “Feels like you’re a fish in the sea.”

Before becoming a public school teacher, she worked at Mystic Museum of Art where she was an art educator who ran camps and worked in outreach programs. She enjoyed creating tasks for the wide age groups she taught. She said, “It was very fun coming up with programs from ages 3 all the way to 80.” She’s also worked at a beauty company called Mary Kay. She loved playing with color and she’s always loved makeup and the discounts she got. 

Mrs. Lally sells her own art. She likes to make things about subjects she’s interested in, and she has learned that others were just as interested in those things as she was.. Her favorite things to draw are flowers and skulls, she sells her designs and also makes her own t-shirts.

 She gets commissions to do illustrations for books or novels and she just completed a book cover for a novel. Mrs. Lally has also participated in the Submarine Trail in New London and created her own submarine, which had details of the US flag. 

Mrs. Lally is an artistic person, so artistic that she’s dyed her hair several times and loves to do so. She started with blood red on the tips of her hair, full black, full burgundy, full blonde, and every shade of purple and pink: “Hair is not permanent, so why not have fun with it.” She said she hasn’t done a blue yet, so she’s thinking of a nice and bold sapphire blue. 

Besides art, she said she likes going on nature walks and collecting things.  Mrs. Lally also loves going to Maine every year where she’s been going since she was a kid. She also spends a lot of time with her husband and three kids. She and her husband are celebrating 20 years together this year. She wants to visit Italy because that’s where her family originated from and would love to experience the culture, and experience the paintings and architecture they have.

Mrs. Brown, another art teacher at Waterford High School, collaborates with Mrs. Lally. Mrs. Brown said,“I enjoy working with Mrs. Lally tremendously!” She has an amazing amount of knowledge in a wide variety of art styles, and techniques”. “She is incredibly creative, enthusiastic and kind which makes it so much fun to collaborate with her.”