The Hill Country Alliance is proud to announce the release of a limited edition Hill Country creation, designed by local artist and graduate student, Emma Marguiles. Emma is a graduate student at the University of Texas in Austin and is working on a Masters in Landscape Architecture. This year, Emma joined the Hill Country Alliance team as part of the summer 2023 Kent Butler Student Internship, a partnership between the Hill Country Alliance and the Center for Sustainable Development at The University of Texas School of Architecture. Learn more about how this work inspired her unique art:
2023 Kent Butler Student Intern and artist, Emma Marguiles
“As an intern at HCA during the summer of 2023, I had the opportunity to speak with partners across the Hill Country about how development is affecting their communities and what can be done about it. The beauty of the Hill Country helped lure me to graduate school in Austin, and it was such a pleasure to see it through the eyes of people who have lived here and loved this place much longer than I have.
In each conversation, I heard similar themes: the Hill Country is full of natural wonders and resilient communities that people are deeply motivated to protect. We are all participants in an intricately connected system, and the choices we make to protect the Hill Country today will be felt for generations to come.
Natural infrastructure, like pristine streams, dark skies, and open spaces, enriches and protects our quality of life, while rooted plants and karst geology connect the surface to the earth below, the mostly invisible world of soils and aquifers that are responsible for the wildflower blooms and crystal-clear springs that make many (myself included) fall in love with this place. The joy of these natural treasures brings people together across generations, bonding them to each other and this place and giving them a reason to protect it.
Click to view tote
After 10 weeks of immersion in this world, I was enchanted, and I tried to infuse the illustration with that feeling.”
This beautiful work of art was digitally printed onto tote bags by RiverCity Screen Printing in San Marcos. All proceeds from the sale of this limited release printing will benefit the Hill Country Alliance. You can buy the tote now on HCA’s store, in either color or black and white! Click here to check it out.
The summer 2023 Kent Butler Student Internship was a partnership between the Hill Country Alliance and the Center for Sustainable Development at The University of Texas School of Architecture.