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As part of the “Stars of Dripping Springs” public art project, the City of Dripping Springs unveiled a new set of stars at a ceremony on Oct. 8. The stars are designed to celebrate the Hill Country nature and heritage that make Dripping Springs shine. The star artists - Melissa Richardson, Joe Christenson, Kyndall Womack, Cathy Richardson, Jessie Woodhead, Erin Hounsel, Jessi Bostad, Tiffany Sierras, Jenny Swannack and Rozmary Seastrom - will be profiled in our newspaper over the coming weeks. This is the second installment.
Erin Hounsel
Tell us about your background as an artist.
I’m kind of a self-taught artist. I never really had consistent formal training. I took some classes at the University of Texas, but not enough to minor or major in it. I just always grew up having a passion for art. It’s kind of a nice, fun, relaxing time for me to just enjoy the process and be away from the noise of the world.
How do you think that your personal style shows through in your star?
This star is very different from my first star. That one is really detailed and it looks like you were going through an actual outdoor scene. I painted rocks for like four weeks straight! This star was much more bold shapes and bright colors, so that was kind of a different take on it.
What was the inspiration for your star this year?
I submitted five entries for review for design concepts. I wanted to try to hit a lot of the categories they gave us in the brief. One of those was the history of Dripping Springs. I happen to work with a lot of wonderful people who have been in Drip their whole lives. One of them gave me a history book that her old history teacher wrote about Dripping Springs. I went through that textbook, and over and over again there’s the repeated theme of cattle ranchers using their horses and taking cattle across the land. I thought maybe we should paint part of that history, so that’s what inspired my design. I have ridden horses my whole life. I’ve drawn horses my whole life. So it was really fun to kind of come back and paint a large scene of a horse and all its fantastic shapes. It felt full circle a little bit.
How do you think public art projects like this benefit the community?
I received so much positive feedback, even from the star last year. Everybody really enjoys seeing those colors out and about town. And all the pieces are so different, which I think is really fun. It just gives people this excitement and energy and a new take on culture, bringing it out into the outdoors.
What are the challenges that you face when you’re trying to make such a large 3-D piece?
What was hard with the specific timing of this star was painting it in the heat of the summer. I don’t have a studio or anything, I was just painting in my garage. You can’t really have a fan on you, because that dries out your paint, so that was a little tricky, but you just push forward. You run on adrenaline with excitement of getting a piece done.
What’s ahead for you as an artist?
I’m going to be doing a live painting at the Songwriters Festival, which is only slightly terrifying. I’ve never done it before so we’ll see how this goes. And then I’m going to feature some artwork for sale at the holiday market on November 8. Other than that, I stay pretty busy with commissions, outside of working two jobs and being a mom - the hustle and bustle of making it all happen. But art is a passion so I always make time for it. I always love to fulfill what someone is envisioning. If I can do that, it gives me so much joy.
Jessi Bostad
Tell me about your star.
My star is Hamilton Pool, and that is relevant to my story. My family goes back out here in the Hill Country seven generations from my kids. Most of my mother’s lineage is buried at Highway 71 at Hamilton Pool Road in this old cemetery called the White Rock Cemetery. We’re part of the Hudson lineage.
I’ve always been appreciative of all of the sacred springs that exist in central Texas, but especially as I’ve gotten older, I’ve really come into a greater appreciation of the sacred nature of those waters. And Hamilton pool has a really dramatic beauty because we don’t have a lot of waterfalls out here. When you think of that iconic image of Hamilton Pool and the grotto and the waterfall, it is really such a cool above-ground representation of our aquifer and our whole water system. Also the permeable geology that exists out here with the limestone and how important all of that is.
I really wanted people to have the full 360° experience of being at Hamilton Pool. It’s not just this one waterfall. Back in the old days you could walk and swim all the way around, and get all these different perspectives.
Tell me a little more about how art fits into your life.
I’m a mom of two teenage boys that I homeschool so I’m always trying to prioritize. It’s a balancing act especially at this point in my life. I’m very busy and my husband runs his own business, which I help him with, so we are juggling. We’re spinning a lot of plates. But at the times in my life when I haven’t been as actively creating, I feel like I’m missing something spiritually … like that creativity can get stuck in your body and you gotta get it out. You gotta keep it moving.
Was there any particular challenge that you faced in trying to paint such a large 3-D piece?
I actually prefer to work large. So I think for me maybe the only challenge was the star shape and trying to convey the 360° experience.
Also, we live in a small lake cabin so we only have about 1000 square feet of living space and then I have a studio. To work on this particular piece, at one point it was on my back patio and then at one point like it was in the house. I had it on a furniture dolly with wheels, so it was just kind of living in the center of our house and we had to live around it. But I got lots of feedback from anyone that was coming into my house, from my husband, my kids, my mom, and the parents of my kids’ friends.
What was the most gratifying part of this project?
I’m just really thrilled to be a part of this initiative, especially because it’s a permanent installation in my family’s long-time home and I have had the opportunity to represent something that I feel is truly sacred about this place, which is these gorgeous springs that we have that bubble up all over the Hill Country.
Kyndall Womack
Tell us a little about your background as an artist.
I have been making art, and it’s been a passion, for as long as I can remember. Both of my grandmothers were artists - one was an art teacher and one did art markets, and then my aunt is a really incredibly talented artist. So it’s just kind of always been around as I grew up. While I was just fresh out of college, I found out about the Art League, and I went to the very first meeting. I joined and decided that I want to be really involved in this. When the star statue opportunity came about, I just loved it. I’m just so grateful that I was chosen to create this star.
What was the inspiration for your star?
This spring, since we had a pretty dry winter, there weren’t as many bluebonnets and Indian paintbrushes that completely covered our fields and roadways. Because of that I got to notice some of the other varieties of flowers. In particular there was this one and it was just so pretty. It was pink and it had these different sections of the flowers that almost looked like bells. I finally stopped on the side of the road and I took a picture of it. It’s Cobaea Beardtongue, or false foxglove. I’ve never seen that before, and I have been in Texas all my life. It just made me stop and look and see what other flowers there were that kind of get overshadowed by our beautiful bluebonnets. I built up the entire idea around that, and just taking the time to look at the little things and find what’s magical about Texas.
How do you think that your personal style has come through for your star design?
I am really big on fantasy-inspired, very whimsical art that is grounded in reality. Like looking at reality through a lens that’s just a little bit fantastical. The star is called The In Between, and on one side is a Hill Country sunrise and on the other is a sunset. It is a field with trees in the back. In the foreground it has tons of native wildflowers. On the sunrise side in the background, there is a mother horse and her baby, and on the other side is a mother deer and her baby. Then flitting all around are fairies, little blue glowing fairies.
What do you want people to feel when they see your star?
I want adults particularly to connect with their inner child whenever they see it. I want people to look at it and just notice the magic and the beauty of our area.
What do you think is good for the community about public art projects?
Sometimes you see art and it feels very out of touch with your reality and your day-to-day life. Something like this, that is so deeply rooted in the Dripping Springs community, can bring people together. And it’s a way to get people out there looking for art, looking for these stars and being more connected to their community in that way.
