Art & Soul: Meet Your Makers

Words Christopher Ferguson | Photos Parker Thornton

Get to know four Austin artists, emergent and established alike, who are playing a pivotal role shaping Eastside’s evolving art scene. Through diverse mediums and representational techniques, they are united by an introspective and deeply personal approach to their crafts, nurtured by patrons of the community they call home. Through the thoughtful exploration of their mediums and for their role in shaping their immediate sphere of influence, these artists reflect the evolving nature of Austin itself: rooted in tradition, yet unafraid of change.

Laura Clay Art

Controlled Chaos

A Mexican-American artist explores the plurality of her bicultural identity.

Born in the United States to Mexican parents, traveling back and forth between the countries became customary, changing schools as often as she changed grades. Laura Clay’s love for art grew as a constant amidst the perpetual change.

Her bicultural upbringing led her to an examination of identity in her thesis work at the National Art School in Sydney, where Laura earned her Master of Fine Arts in 2020, before arriving in Austin later that same year. “How do we find balance, having all these different selves we juggle?” she asks, rhetorically. “That’s a major theme in my work. We never let loose of each identity we adopt, and we are always aspiring to find balance.”

“I have many paintings by Angela Navarro in my house, and I love them all. But, my favorite is striking in many ways. It’s an older piece that’s very different from her current style, and it was given to me and my wife as a wedding gift. Angela knew I loved it, and looking at it always takes me back to that special day.” -Baptiste Despois, EASTside ATX photographer

“I have a few favorites! But my most favorite artwork is from a Galician photographer Xan Padrón. I am a proud collector of one of his “Time Lapse” series. I love photography for many reasons but one of the reasons is because it is so different from what I do. His photography captures different people walking in front of the same beautiful place and then meticulously stitches it all together into one artwork. His ability to capture the essence of time and movement in a single frame is truly amazing. The way he documents the flow of life in Berlin (my photograph was taken in TucholkystraBe, Berlin) and other cities in the world highlights the beauty of everyday moments as well as reflecting the vibrant energy and cultural richness of cities really resonates with me.”
-Laura Clay, Artist

“My favorite piece of art hanging on my wall is actually a very small, glass-blown character. He’s like a little cartoony glass head, and he’s important and special to me. I bought him years ago at Canopy’s open nights. There was a wall of these little characters, each one unique, and oh so fun! He brings me joy with his comic style; it’s such an unusual piece, being 3-dimensional versus flat art like a photo or painting.” -Tanya White, EASTside ATX writer

Dalton Tracée

Flow State

A native Austinite finds her voice with timeless portraits and evocative abstract works.

Only a year and a half ago, Dalton Tracée started painting again. She had taken some art classes in high school, but her interest in art was actually nurtured much earlier by her grandmother, also an artist, who would take Dalton wallpapering and lend her coloring books to occupy the time.

In the back of her mind, Dalton always considered pursuing art earnestly, but without confidence in any particular aesthetic, the burden of “creative block” perpetuated. “Everything changed when I stopped worrying about being perfect,” she explains. “I just practiced and let things flow.”

Nothing Wasted:
Dalton uses small canvases as paint palettes to mix colors, which then become abstract compositions also available for sale.

Finding Your Centerpiece

“My first piece of art will always hold a special place in my heart. It was during East Austin Studio Tour when I came across this stunning abstract floral painting. When I tell you it took my breath away, I literally could not walk away. When a piece speaks to you, you feel it in your whole body—you just know. This piece was done by my now friend, Chanel Kreuzer.” -Dalton Tracée, Artist

“This is one of my favorite pieces in my home. My wife and I bought it in 2014 in Vietnam when we planned on moving there before being called back stateside for work. We spent about six weeks renting a room from a family in Ho Chi Minh City, and while traveling around, we came across many open-air art studios. We watched these incredible painters create original works and replicas, and we bought this original piece before we came back to the U.S. We had it custom-framed once we got back and have displayed it in all our different homes and apartments for the past ten years.” -Codi Chen, EASTside ATX writer & editor

“My most meaningful artwork was painted sometime in the ‘70s by my dad. It’s a piece dedicated to writing your own story, deciding where the end of your chapters are and taking leadership on the notion that we are our own authors of the life we want. It’s bittersweet for me to look at now as my dad passed away suddenly from cancer two years ago. He fought a hard battle, and when he decided he was done fighting, he finally let go. He had his fate more or less written for him, yet still contained the power to write his own story, even when given limitations.” -Clarissa Jane, EASTside ATX writer

Ladybird Studio

Thread Lightly

A young artist creates captivating, embroidered works inspired by fashion, landscape, and nostalgic, personal subcultures.

Jane Reichle was only seven years old when Hurricane Katrina flooded her home in New Orleans, beginning a series of adventures that would take her to Houston before her family settled in Austin. Too young to fully grasp the trauma of the events, she embraced the unpredictability of the era, doodling her way through her notebooks in high school and, eventually, teaching herself the craft of embroidery.

After losing her job in special education during the pandemic, she began to consider her art practice a full-time commitment, soothed by the thousands of repetitive stitches that would aggregate into each composition.

Prints Please:
Jane is currently working with Lockhart’s Get Lucky Gallery to issue a series of high quality prints of her embroidered pieces.

Finding Your Centerpiece

“Most of the art I’ve collected comes with a story, but I actually bought this particular piece on Etsy. The first works I ever sold were through Etsy, and now I’ve progressed to galleries. This hand-sculpted ceramic piece is a combination of two Lotería cards: La Mano and El Corazon. I just love the detailing and sculpted look of the piece. I used to sculpt things out of clay, like shoes and insects, so I can appreciate the craftsmanship.” -Jane Reichle, Artist

“My favorite piece of art is a painting my son created, inspired by a Ted Harrison landscape. I remember when he brought it home in 2019 from his 2nd-grade art class, and I was wowed by how proud he was of this colorful abstract. It now hangs in our living room. The colors and textures are simple, but they all come together very well. He’s created many beautiful pieces since, but when I look at it, it takes me back to that time when his young creative talent had just sprouted.” -Will Bowling, EASTside ATX creative director & co-founder

Chihuahuas: love them or hate them, they are unforgettable creatures. With their pert noses, pointy ears, and oversized bark, these canines are as comical as they are formidable. Since I was small, every time I walked by the black and white photo of a seated chihuahua, I would smile. Its gleaming eyes laugh mischievously from the oversized matting and frame that surround its likeness. I was never able to resist the pull to move closer to inspect this inert dog that looks like it is about to leap into animation. It’s a piece of art that is quirky, minimal, interactive, and tongue-in-cheek. It’s also my favorite.” -Jessi Devenyns, EASTside ATX writer

Maček Furniture Company & Splinter Group

Community Craft

An artist and woodworker builds a legacy of lasting community and craft.

Mark Maček was only twelve years old when he moved to Austin in the ‘70s, but he already knew he wanted to study architecture. Sticking to his plan, he graduated from Austin High and enrolled at the University of Texas, loving education but also feeling out of step with the banality of office life.

Trading the office for the wood shop, he began turning to the craftsmanship of creating and sculpting, taking classes at Austin Community College and eventually apprenticing with vaunted Texas craftsman, Louis Fry. Mark credits Louis for teaching him the craft of woodworking, but the relationship also eventually made Mark a mentor for his peers and community. As he pursued teaching, that mentorship continued into the next generation of apprentices. Now far from a solitary pursuit, Mark attributes woodworking to a long, generational conversation.

Support Future Artisans:
The Austin School of Furniture is a core part of the local artisan community, a non-profit accepting donations to build a more permanent version of the school.

Finding Your Centerpiece

“I’m lucky to have a number of artists who I consider my friends, so my art collection naturally began with their work. Alex Diamond, Sean David Morgan, and Jack Murphy are among my favorites. I commissioned this typewriter piece from Jack Murphy in 2020, after seeing him produce his series “Textual Healing” that would go on to be celebrated in Austin and beyond throughout the 2010s. In my piece, Jack superimposed three characters (a black “C” and “F”, and a red “X”) over a factorial grid. There are a total of 15,582 typewriter impressions that create the composition, and a total of 9 visible misstrokes. I love the rigor of the work, but the exceptions are my favorite part. Jack is also a very gifted writer and was a role model to me as I built up the courage to start writing professionally, making this piece especially symbolic.” -Christopher Ferguson, EASTside ATX writer

“We have many meaningful pieces that remind us of special moments, from a vibrant bison watercolor, which we picked up from a Fredericksburg flea market, that reminds me of coming eye-to-eye with the beasts in Yellowstone to an abstract landscape painting of The Narrows hike in Zion by Danika Ostrowski, which is special to us because we have a photo of our son standing on the rock she perfectly painted in the center of the sherbet-colored slot canyon. One of my favorite artist, Inés Batlló, gifted me a piece from her literary series which is sculpted off the wooden canvas in beeswax (this is especially meaningful to me given my line of work). Most recently, we hung a Japanese Gyotaku fish printing (caught, imprinted, and painted) by Kristin Belew which reminds me of our whale watching cruise with Kristin off the shores of Lana’i.

But the piece that elicits the most dinner table conversations is a work called “Date Night” by Eli Halpin. Austin local, Eli, was born and raised in Alaska, and she has a way of capturing the details of wild animals but depicting them in a playful setting. This particularly large canvas hangs above our dining room table as we daily share a meal with two gray wolves, on a date, enjoying a meal. But the question de jour always begs, is it one rabbit or two?” -Ashley Bowling, EASTside ATX founder & editor-in-chief

Artwork by Jack Murphy

The Art of Failure: Mistakes are just one step closer to something beautiful.

One of Dalton’s favorite pieces started as a failed portrait. Unsatisfied with glasses oddly obscuring the subject’s eyes, she painted over her, transforming it into a vibrant, textured work of art, titled “SOCO Girl.”

Jane embraces mistakes in her pieces, often due to unexpected color shifts in stitched threads. She rarely undoes her work, choosing instead to pivot, letting the piece evolve naturally. This approach turns challenges into opportunities, resulting in creations with a unique rhythm and beauty.

Laura often views the imperfections in her work as “beauty marks” rather than flaws. Whether it’s a smudge, an oily fingerprint, or an uneven gradient, she often leaves them untouched, insisting that they add character. Her paintings celebrate the artist’s hand and the natural beauty of the unexpected.

In woodworking, mistakes are inevitable, but repair is an essential skill. “Craft involves taking risks,” says Mark. For any piece that can’t be salvaged, he attempts to repurpose it, not allowing the hard work go to waste. While risk is vital in both craft and design, Mark’s craft pushes boundaries to prevent work from becoming routine.