About The Artists
Arbor Castle is a testament to the boundless creativity of Joe Hopps and Leila Garrett, two visionary artists who draw inspiration from the lush landscapes of East Texas. Their passion for unusual materials and whimsical designs has led to the creation of unique art pieces that transform ordinary spaces into enchanted realms. From intricate birdhouses and gour creations to kinetic sculptures, each piece tells a story of nature, fantasy, and imagination, crafted with love and intention.
Joe Hopps
Abstract Expressionist & Edom, TX Original
F.J. (Joe) Hopps has called Edom, Texas home since December 1999, and this small town has been the backdrop for one of the most creative and unexpected comeback stories in East Texas art.
A self-taught artist born in 1945, Joe first discovered his love of abstract expressionism in the early 1970s after visiting museums in Dallas and Fort Worth, where the bold works of Hans Hofmann, Franz Kline, and Larry Poons stopped him in his tracks. He began painting in oils and showing his work at sidewalk shows across rural Texas before eventually making his way to Houston, Oklahoma, and back again — always following what he called "a path with heart."
That path led him to a wild idea: building birdhouses as an art form. In 1999, he left contracting behind and arrived in Edom with his extraordinary Arbor Castle Birdhouses — hand-crafted sculptures made from hollowed cedar trunks that blur the line between functional art and woodland magic. For over two decades, his creations became a beloved fixture of the Edom art scene.
Then, in 2022, the brushes called him back. A hand injury, a chance encounter at the Edom Art Festival with a woman who had been searching for his paintings for 50 years, and the sight of two long-lost canvases at his son's home — three moments that reignited a fire. Since January 2023, Joe has been fully back in the studio, working in acrylics, oils, and mixed media with the same bold, free-spirited energy that defined his earliest work.
His paintings are now shown at Tyler Fine Art Gallery in Downtown Tyler, and his work can be found at joehoppsfineart.com.
Joe Hopps is proof that creativity never retires — it just finds the next path with heart.
Leila Garrett
Abstract Expressionist & Edom, TX Original
Leila Garrett is one of East Texas's most uniquely multidimensional creatives — a naturalist, yoga practitioner, musician, and visual artist whose work flows from a deep, reverent relationship with the natural world.
Her art is rooted in the earth itself. Leila's photography and digital prints transform the organic world into something mythic — mirrored reflections of turtles, ancient figures, and wild creatures that seem to emerge from soil, water, and light. Her images carry a ceremonial quality, as if each one is an offering from the forest floor. Alongside her prints, she creates enchanting fairy houses and woodland sculptures from natural materials — whimsical, handcrafted dwellings that feel like they truly belong to another world just beyond the treeline.
Leila's creative practice doesn't live in just one form. As a yoga teacher and naturalist, she weaves movement, breath, and the living landscape into immersive workshops that unite body, art, and the wild. Her work has been featured at Tyler Fine Art Gallery and in collaborative events across East Texas.
At Art by Melody Noel in Historic Downtown Edom, Texas, Leila's prints and nature creations invite visitors to slow down, look closer, and remember that art and nature have always spoken the same language.
