The Art Walls are an installation by Margo Sawyer, designed in concert with architects Page Sutherland Page.  The new house, located in Santa Fe, NM, features several other material innovations such as colored rammed earth walls. 

Our role in the Art Walls was mostly technical.  The joint vision of the artist and architect was paramount.  From the outside surface, as draw by Margo, my job was 90% of the painted panels, and everything behind them.  Margo provided the remaining 10% of the panels, metal with intense coloration. 

Discussions started a year before implementation.  At such an early stage in the process, I was able to plan effectively and to strategize the best possible outcome.  The tolerences to the ceiling, fireplace, and ductwork were very precise.  The panels facing the kitchen are operable cabinets.   We fabricated in Austin,and installed in Santa Fe.

Originally commissioned by fellow Guild member Todd Campbell, this line will now be a production item.  

The cherry for Campbell's original commission came from his family farm in Michigan, where it had been sitting in a barn for decades, awaiting it's destiny as Campbell's dining room seating.  I have a strong affinity for Danish cording, so I immediately proposed it as a seating material.  The second set  was commissioned--along with a table--by Mockingbird Domestics, a new furniture store on South Lamar that supports local makers.  

Venetian Plaster above column and on crown cove. Painted Mother of Pearl finish on dining room walls.

 "The Ring of Life"  in the Big EZ lodge, Big Sky, MT.  Painting of local landscape and wildlife images over Dutch metal leaf.

I had a lot of fun co-designing the backsplash and then inlaying some of the selected tiles into the counters. 

In the fall of 2009 , I began desiging and selling a line of vases, trays and succullent planters which have become a major part of my business.

Entry bench in white oak (waxed) with integrated table and danish cord seats

A pair of cherry bi-folding doors add privacy to an office/guest quarters.   milled and hand-painted cherry blossom image integrated into door panels.  

The Umasi Collection is specifically designed to blur the line between furniture and sculpture - with perfect panels that collide into organic elements. 

Because Umasi is largely built of salvaged materials, it clearly comments on the nature of our consumer society. But it's also a ready platform for other forms of social commentary, with references to art history, contemporary culture, and even the politics of war.

We hope you enjoy Umasi. 

In 2007, St. Austin Catholic Parish was anticipating the celebration of its 100th anniversary of  its founding in 1908.  When the parish approached Mark about creating new liturgical furniture for the church, Mark wanted to be sure that they were not just turning to him because he and his family had been parishioners since the early 1980s.  He encouraged the parish to contact and get design proposals and bids from other woodworkers in the Guild of Austin Artisans that Mark belongs  to along with several other skilled wood craftsmen .  The church committee had mentioned to Mark that they had saved the brass gate and marble from the old communion railing that had been removed many years ago.  Mark went down to the dusty storage area to examine these elements and determine how to work these into his final design proposals.  The committee ultimately decided on Landers’ Studio as their choice to build the new church furniture primarily because he was the only one that incorporated these essential elements as well as reflecting many existing architectural elements  in his final design proposals.

All of the furniture would be built out of white oak and stained to match the  stain of the existing oak columns of the sanctuary.   The oak lumber was totally in the “rough” before being transformed into the altar and ambo.   The altar with the brass omega symbol and the marble columns match the existing marble and wood so well that many people now do not realize that this altar was not original to the church.    Landers used fifteen parishioners to help move and assemble the 700 lb. altar.  Once in place, a concealed caster system allows one person to easily move the altar for different liturgies.   The ambo not only incorporated the marble columns, but  Mark also picked up the Celtic braid carving design from the columns of the baldachino for the crest rail of the ambo (or pulpit).  

The credence table and the cantor stand base also imitate the existing wood columns on a smaller scale.   The pediment of the baldachino is reflected in the back of the presider’s chair with the chair’s side panels echoing the crossbar patterns on the screens of the sanctuary.  The middle cross pattern was done in rosewood to stand out from the stained oak of the rest of the ergonomically designed presider's chair.