Stories from the Hive: Sarah Sheppard and the Bee Mural
If you’ve ever visited us in Dripping Springs, you’ve probably noticed the mural on our wall, hand painted in our retail space between the honey display and the pillar candles. People who come in will often remark on it (after they’ve had a chance to mention how great everything smells), and our reply is always the same: the artist is our very own Sarah Sheppard, who got her start at The Beeswax Co. back in 2017. Then, Sarah was looking for a place to land where she could use her crafting skills. “Working with wax,” she says, “proved to satisfy that desire.”
Sarah had an early start as an artist, coming from a family of artistic people and choosing to pursue art in school. “Throughout school I studied photography, drawing, painting, graphic design, ceramics, and fabric art,” Sarah says, when prompted to discuss her artistic background. “Pretty much anything I could get my hands into, literally.” As those who have seen our mural can probably guess, Sarah is an accomplished muralist, having painted about 15 exterior murals, including her most notable Alice in Wonderland mural for China Finders in St. Petersburg Florida. The first large-scale mural she painted was for a spa in Florida. “The wall was about 30 feet long and 10 feet high,” Sarah recalls. “The biggest canvas I had ever worked on!”
After moving to Texas to be closer to family, Sarah took advantage of the booming real estate market and began a small business in which she did faux finishing, Venetian plaster projects, and murals in homes and businesses. “It was a lot of work, with tight deadlines,” Sarah says about the endeavor. “But at the end of those long hours was a great sense of satisfaction at having transformed a once sparse white room into a space with character and ambience.”
Something similar could be said (and often is) amongst other members of The Beeswax Co. team: there is an inherent satisfaction in spending your time creating something and having a finished product you can be proud of. This mutual feeling is only one of the reasons why Sarah will always have a special place at The Beeswax Co. While these days, she’s stepped back from her role here to devote more time to her career in art, we still see her when she occasionally pops back in to lend a hand with production. When asked about her favorite candle to make, Sarah replies that while our lantern candles can be a pain (which is what inevitably happens when we make thousands of them in a week), there is something fun about the challenge.
To be sure, Sarah doesn’t shy away from a challenge. Recently, she’s worked on oil paintings for buyers all across the country, and she always has personal projects going, including cutting up her own paintings to make collages. “My personal artworks are inspired by my life events and the beauty of the natural world surrounding me,” she says. “I also source from varied historical motifs and historical symbolism, sometimes mixing in modern touches either through color or application. My goal is to convey a sense of beauty, romanticism, and mysticism.”
When she’s not painting gorgeous murals for our retail space, working on commissions, or pouring candles, Sarah can probably be found spending time with her son or hiking in Austin. If you’re in the central Texas area, don’t forget to stop by and see our Sarah Sheppard original, and maybe pick up one of our adorable Sarah container candles, too. They are, of course, named for our favorite resident artist.
Follow Sarah on Instagram: @thee.divine.sarah and check out her website here.