BUSINESS FEATURE
BY DARCY SPRAGUE
HAVE YOU SEEN FLATFORK STUDIO’S WORK?
PAST Home Away sign at Austin City Limits 2017 Zilker Park 207 Lou Ne Rd, Austin CURRENT A leprechaun chair at Lala’s Little Nugget 2207 Justin Lane, Austin A metal rose across from Juan in a Million 2300 E. Cesar Chavez St. (created for the now closed Al ’s Florist) Candy Land, Santa’s House and Workshop at the Austin Trail of Lights (2020-21) 2100 Barton Springs Road, Austin FUTURE Santa Clause pulled by armadillo reindeer at Star Bar 600 W. 6th St., Austin Elf Shoe at Gibson Street Bar 1109 S Lamar Blvd, Austin
Home Away
COURTESY FLATFORK STUDIO
Santa's workshop
Faith Schexnayder and her husband, John, share a building where they run Flatfork Studio and Action Screen Graphics.
COURTESY FLATFORK STUDIO
DARCY SPRAGUE COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
Flatfork Studio East Austin artists carve out their place in the city M any Austinites have seen Flatfork Studio’s work without realizing it. Its foam fabrications. “There’s not a lot of jobs out there for people with ours, so we have to kind of carve our own niche,” Schexnayder said.
Elf Shoe
of projects that have appeared at South by Southwest Conference & Festivals, the Austin Trail of Lights and at local businesses. They create their own projects, such as a skull at Gibson Street Bar; collaborate with other artists on projects such as the Couch Potatoes fabrication that is now at Circuit of The Americas; and restore older works, such as six 10-foot-tall frogs at a Chuy’s in Nashville. “We love what we do,” Schexnay- der said. “You know, I like to get up every morning. And that’s what gets me [to Flatfork] every day. We work with great friends and great folks.”
DARCY SPRAGUE COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
Flatfork Studio 1406 Smith Road, Stes. E-F, Austin 512-293-4178 www. atforkstudio.com Hours: Mon.-Fri. 9 a.m.-4 p.m., closed Sat.-Sun.
art takes the form of installations at the Austin Trail of Lights, an 8-foot-long armadillo that made its way around downtown in 2016, a human-sized sandwich that rotated among co ee shops and more. Faith Schexnayder, owner and director, and Ryan Day, production manager and lead fabricator, of the studio are trained in traditional mediums such as painting and sculpting, but they make their mark on Austin’s bar, restaurant and events scene through giant
Schexnayder was creating scenes for plays when she rst saw some- one carving a giant sculpture. “I saw that and I just was like, ‘this is going to be the rest of my life,’” Schexnayder said. “So 20 years later, I’m still doing it. As an artist, if you are going to make it a job, to make a living, you have to reinvent yourself from time to time.” The pair, along with a small team, are now responsible for dozens
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SOUTHWEST AUSTIN DRIPPING SPRINGS EDITION • NOVEMBER 2021
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