Megan Navarro
KYLE — Artist Joshua Farrell has several sculptures and other artwork displayed across Hays County, including the newest one, which was unveiled at Ascension Seton Hays Hospital in Kyle.
Farrell has been surrounded by art his entire life, helping work in his father’s studio since the age of 10. Then, even though he had no formal training, he would use his own self-taught technique and skills to dive into various mediums wherever he lived, from creating and selling comic strips in New York to crafting metal sculptures in Guatemala.
At the same time, he would support himself with working in construction, building management and maintenance. But, at the end of the day, every time he would get home, he would work on art.
Over the years, Farrell had a makeshift studio in every place he lived, including the Lockhart/Luling area, which has been his family’s home for the last 30-plus years.
“It's a bottling plant in Luling, Texas, and it's a really cool historic building. It's my studio and my gallery now. What it is, when you go in there, just like beautiful old Mexican tile in there and the walls are 18 inches thick. It's all handmade rock, two stories on the front and like a Quonset hut type roof over the studio in the back,” he described. “When you're in there, it's kind of a creative environment. It's not like going into some metal building or concrete building or strip mall. It's somewhere you go [that] provokes thought.”
Farrell dabbles in different mediums, ranging from wood carvings, metal and iron sculptures to acrylic paintings. While sometimes, people want to buy an art piece where people will look at it and immediately know the artist, Farrell said that is not always the case for his work because he does multiple things, whether it’s through commission or his own designs.
Most recently, Ascension Seton Hays Hospital in Kyle commissioned Farrell to create a piece for patients and associates to enjoy when they walk into the facility. For the metal sculpture, Farrell took inspiration from Ascension’s logo, which represents the Holy Trinity described in the Bible verse Ecclesiastes 4:12, using the tangible concept of a rope made from three interwoven cords being much stronger than a rope made of just two and his love for bonsai.
“That logo is a very beautiful shape. And, to me, it looks like three eyeballs kind of joined together and it symbolizes the Trinity, of course, and the tree trunks coming up represents the strength where it’s more than one person, when it’s a group of people with a cause, they are more likely to be able to finish it and get it done,” Farrell said. “I was [also] kind of inspired by bonsai and Fabergé eggs. It’s like a large piece of jewelry and the fact that it’s a globe at the top, it symbolizes the organization and the three trunks coming together symbolizes all the effort and the people that make it happen.”
The new piece is the second sculpture of Farrell’s — who is a former facilities manager at Ascension Seton — located at the Kyle hospital. He also has other work at various hospitals, including Dell Children’s Medical Center, Ascension Seton Williamson and Ascension Seton Highland Lakes.
For Farrell, the best thing that he could see come out from creating the sculptures and art pieces that he does is to help people focus on something else, especially in the hospital setting.
“I've been up to the hospital, where my sculptures are, on occasion just to visit a friend and I'll sit in the lobby and, when somebody walks by and stops and stares at the sculpture, I think that's the biggest compliment … For a moment, they kind of escape whatever worries they have and maybe nudge their friend [and say] like, ‘Hey, look at this.’ That's really the best input I've gotten,” he shared.
He has also created pieces for places outside of hospitals, including that of the Wimberley Village Library, for which he is in the process of finishing up a project this month that is focused on the facility’s donors. Additionally, he has: constructed a piece for a sorority house; donated a painting to a restaurant in San Marcos; and painted a whimsical koi-pond inspired mural at the San Marcos Public Library that was designed to be interactive for kids.
To learn more about Farrell, and to see his portfolio, visit his website at www.jfarrellart.com or follow him on Instagram @jfarrellart.
