Ms Mackley is influential in Gunnedah's arts and cultural side, and after growing up in a creative family, she's encouraging women to break free and create, too.

"Gunnedah has a lot of amazing creative women and it's that ongoing support and dedication and that cohort of strong women that make a lot of these projects happen and we have a very long history of women in that art and creative space who have been social change advocates," she said.

She said both her mum and dad allowed herself and her siblings to "be a part of creating things" and "play with paints and paper" and believes that's where her creativity started.

"In high school I had some really incredible mentors who helped me through the process, and then I went onto university," she said.

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She studied visual art and education at Southern Cross University, and now, she works at Gunnedah Shire Council as the cultural precinct team leader.

Two major projects in Gunnedah that Ms Mackley has played a part in are the Dorothea Mackellar mural on the maize mill, and the Rainbow Serpent sculpture, which recently won in the Australian Street Art Awards.

She said it was very exciting that the sculpture nabbed the 2020 Best Rural Art Silver Award.

"I was pretty excited to be a finalist to be honest so to find out we came second was amazing," Ms Mackley said.

Final works on the maize mill mural are still happening, and she hopes it will be finished in May, before winter kicks in.

After that, there's plenty more happening.

"Waste into Art has just opened and we've got our NAIDOC exhibition so they're our big markers on the calendar," she told the NVI.

"I think Two Rivers Arts Council are bringing the Art of Aging into the gallery [and] we've got a beautiful showcase of lots of local artists as well as Arts Gunnedah will have their annual exhibition."

For anyone who wants to unleash their creative side, Ms Mackley said to "just take the plunge".

"Being creative is a bit of a soul-baring process, but if it's something that's inside you and it's what you want to do, then you just should do it," she said.

"It'll make you feel a lot better and make you a better person once the process finishes."

She's unsure where she will progress to herself, but believes her path "is always something with a creative tilt".

"Being with [the council] has shown me the power of activating place and space and I think that's something i would like to explore a little bit more," she said.

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