Artists

Selecting artwork for the space is as key to the overall aesthetic as the materials themselves. All of the pieces seen throughout the space are the works of three local artists – Martha Gannon, Margo Sawyer and Valerie Fowler – along with the Pacific North West’s Gretchen Gammell.

Martha Gannon

“When I say that Martha is a local artist, I mean it. She lives two blocks from the hotel and I fell in love with her bunny paintings the moment I saw them. There is an intrigue and softness they bring to the room.”

– Kimber Cavendish- owner

Martha’s background is in studio art and she has been producing sculpture for the past twenty years. She started painting seriously in 2001. A common theme in her work is a playful integration of longing (for innocence, for perfection) with a present, engaging reality. She paints in oil both on panel and canvas and employs animals, often anthropomorphic in their dress and actions, situated in context derived from the West Texas desert. She spent much of her youth in West Texas and continues to reside there part-time. She also lived and worked in Italy for a period of time and makes frequent visits there to work.

For more information, please visit www.marthagannon.com

Margo Sawyer

“I’ve known Margo forever, and beyond her undeniable skill as an artist, I just really like her as a person. When I first saw the boxes she’s doing I was blown away. They are beautifully simple but completely brilliant.”

– Kimber Cavendish-owner

Throughout her career, Margo Sawyer has created installations, which translate the notion of an ancient sacred space into a contemporary vocabulary. She is particularly interested in relationships between the experience of space and the experience of transcendence — and the ways in which architectural and ritual can converge to create a forum for contemplation and reflection. She has exhibited nationally in New York, Los Angeles, New Haven, Houston, Austin and internationally in the United Kingdom, Italy, India and Japan. In addition to her career as an artist, Sawyer is a Professor of Sculpture/Studio Art in the M.F.A. Program right here at the University of Texas at Austin.

For more information, please visit www.margosawyer.com and www.hollyjohnsongallery.com

Valerie Fowler

“Valerie also lives right in the neighborhood. For several years I have coveted Valerie’s agave paintings. Her bright colors and attention to detail are amazing.”

– Kimber Cavendish -owner

Valerie Fowler works in oil, painting mostly botanical images seen through a filter of mild strangeness; like the setting of a mysterious story between tellings. There’s a hint of claustrophobia and fearsomely seductive beauty in a world too vast and too minute to hold still. She grew up surrounded by art in Houston, Texas. Her father is the sculptor, Bob Fowler. She has a B. A. in Art from the University of Texas and lives and paints in Austin, Texas.

For more information, please visit www.valeriefowler.com

Gretchen Gammell

“I have six of Gretchen’s pieces — and my mother and brother both have some too. I love her work and how it can be beautifully haunting. Most of her work depicts women’s strengths through adversity.”

– Kimber Cavendish -owner

A decade in, Gretchen Gammell’s original paintings have hung in galleries across the western United States and British Columbia. Gammell’s attention to fine detail and structure are evident in her rich textures and purposeful mark-making; she continues to refine her craft by exploring the familiar themes of the female form, botanicals, and wildlife. In addition to expanding her gallery presence, Gammell accepts custom commissions.

For more information, please visit gretchengammell.com