Hope Springs Eternal for Young Artist

It's not unusual for a visual artist to have a meltdown as a show approaches. But just before her first professional gallery experience, Hope Lennox became especially frustrated. She could barely move her fingers.

Not a good thing when you work in clay.

In early October, during a volleyball warm-up for her P.E. class, the Pace Academy 7th-grader broke both her arms. As luck would have it, this happened just as she got word that she was to be included in the Swan Coach House Gallery's "Little Things Mean a Lot," a popular holiday show and gift sale at the well-regarded gallery behind the Atlanta History Center. 

Fortunately, Hope had two pieces ready to go.

"But I had to make one more," says the 12-year-old, who crafts whimsical animals, birthday cakes, hamburgers, furniture sets and delicate Japanese sushi and sake sets out of clay.

With both arms in casts, she almost had to will the tiny birthday cake into being. She couldn't roll and shape the clay in her palms as she normally would. So she pushed and she poked with the exposed tips of her fingers. "It took a long time," she says.

Today, both arms have healed. Hope can send text messages again. And she is selling her loopy little animals on her website,  awesomeanimalsbyhope.com, and the Peachtree Road Farmers Market, which closes out the year on Dec. 18 and starts up again in April. At the market, the young artist displays her cute pigs and pooches under the banner of Hope's Gardens, her parents' artisanal pesto business.

Dave Lennox, Hope's dad, works in the technology industry and is an avid gardener. Her mom, Leslie, is a foodie. Together they turned their excess of basil into a small business. In 2007, they began pushing pesto at the Saturday market at the Cathedral of St. Philip. You may recognize their van by a bumper sticker that says: "Got pesto?"

"Hope was always with us, and she wanted to do something," Leslie Lennox says.

Hope's creations caught the eye of collectors, and eventually Swan Coach House Gallery curator Marianne Lambert, who chose Hope over dozens of well-known artists. "I can't tell you how many artists call begging to be in this show," Lambert says. This year, 110 artists are included. The exhibit runs through Jan. 8.

Hope's creativity may run in the family. Her mom was Vera Wang's assistant when the famous designer was a Vogue fashion editor in the '80s. Later, Leslie Lennox was a freelance stylist and developed products for the paper industry. "My husband's family is creative as well," Leslie Lennox says. "There's a little piece of everybody in Hope."

A stylish kid who sports her own hand-made jewelry and has long blond hair, Hope has participated in art camps at the Chastain Arts Center and Savannah College of Art and Design. She plans to study visual art in college, enjoys museums and admires the cartoon-style work of Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. Hope began making the miniature objects to go in a Victorian doll house her grandfather built for her.

An animal lover with two pet cats, Hope is also a philanthropist. "I donate a dollar from each sale to the Atlanta Humane Society," she says. "So far I have donated over $1,000." Her penguins, turtles and other objects range in price from $5 to $50.

"There are lots of people who have animals either that they have lost or that they just love," Leslie Lennox says. "They want Hope to create a rendition. It's been this interesting thing where people will e-mail her and attach a picture, and she creates these things for people that just make them so unbelievably happy."

Not long ago, an Atlanta couple with romantic problems started exchanging Hope's sweet little creatures as gifts. Now they are back together again, thanks to the menagerie, and Leslie Lennox winkingly calls her daughter a "love broker."

Broken arms or broken hearts, there's always Hope.
 

Where to see Hope Lennox's work

Peachtree Road Farmers Market
9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Dec. 18 (final day of 2010). Cathedral of St. Philip, 2744 Peachtree Road N.W., Atlanta 30305. peachtreeroadfarmersmarket.com.

Swan Coach House Gallery
 "Little Things Mean a Lot." Through Jan. 8. 3130 Slaton Drive N.W., Atlanta 30305. 404-266-2636. swancoachhouse.com

On the web
awesomeanimalsbyhope.com