Nest 20th Anniversary Camp Mug

Fine artist Haley Elise Hughes creates paintings and illustrations inspired by classical still lifes and traditional folk art imagery. Playing with thoughtful color palettes and motifs, her work ascribes a deeper meaning to symbolic objects we interact with throughout our lives, like keys, seashells, candles, and flowers. Each piece is a meditation on Haley's experience of her feminine identity and invites the viewer to apply their own nostalgia and inherited mythologies around identity to their understanding of her work. Haley received a B.A. in Studio Art from Furman University in 2017 and currently works from her home studio in Asheville, North Carolina.

About the project

From traditional artisans to modern makers, Nest has been a thread connecting creatives from all sectors of the craft world and enabling them to thrive through their programs, and Haley wanted to honor that as she thought through the illustration. Working with Nest's brand colors and the theme of a tapestry in mind, she illustrated "patches" depicting the tools of the folks they've supported over the years, from a wood awl to a jeweler's saw to a weaving shuttle. At the heart of the illustration are two doves circling their nest, a ribbon harkening celebration held between them. Their nest holds three eggs, a quantity specifically chosen to represent the core values of Nest's mission: to celebrate, uplift, and grow the businesses of the creatives they support. Though we are celebrating a wonderful 20 years of Nest, the work is not done! The needle is threaded and ready to continue sewing this beautiful tapestry in the years to come.