Artist Conversation: Mystical & Natural World

Red Dot artists Margaux Crump, Jenelle Esparza, Valerie Fowler, and Adrienne Hodge discuss how they use the natural and mystic world to create sculpture, installation, illustration and painting. 

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About the Artists

Margaux Crump

Margaux Crump is an interdisciplinary artist exploring the slippery relationships between power, magic, and ecology. She has exhibited nationally, most notably at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Saint Louis; The Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, Washington, DC; and Women & Their Work, Austin, TX. Her work has been featured on Artnet and The Museum of Non-Visible Art as well as in numerous online publications. Crump holds a BA from Trinity University in San Antonio, TX and an MFA in studio art from Washington University in St. Louis, MO. She is based in Houston, TX. 

Jenelle Esparza

Jenelle Esparza is an interdisciplinary artist who was born in the coastal city of Corpus Christi and currently lives in San Antonio. She received her BFA in photography from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Esparza was selected for the State of the Art II 2020 survey of American Art at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and The Momentary in Bentonville, AR. She is the recipient of numerous honors including the 2018 Artpace International Artist Residency. Esparza examines the lesser-known history of cotton and labor in South Texas through photography and textiles, and incorporates concepts of body movement, history, gender, identity, culture, and race.

Valerie Fowler

Valerie Fowler’s artworks portray settings or scenes illustrating states of nature on earth. Through implied narratives she relays her concern and love for our fragile home as she explores the mark we humans make on it. Stories, taken from her own interactions with nature, are integral. Over time she’s developed personal touchstones and archetypes sourced from her native Texas environment which hint at allegories. Through the unique intensity of her personal vision, she endeavors to communicate themes examining the qualities of beauty in nature, and also, our common mortality. Valerie Fowler was named the Official 2018 Poster Artist of the Texas Book Festival. Fowler recently exhibited at Cambia Art Gallery, Cloudtree Gallery and the Neill-Cochran House Museum. Fowler holds a BA from the University of Texas at Austin.

Adrienne Hodge

Adrienne Hodge is a pen & ink artist whose work blends both contemporary and vintage drawing and calligraphy inks through a process of drawn and painted layers. And sometimes she oil paints. Among her strongest influences, she cites particle physics, dadaism, psychology, neuroscience, and early photography processes. Hodge holds a BFA from the University of Texas at Austin.