A Heart for Home
By celebrating Southern culture, family life and SEC football, an Oxford artist builds both her art and her audience.
Written and photographed by Lindsay Pace
Christian Wash Garvey didn’t set out to build an online following. She was just sharing stories of the South.
“We have this very self-deprecating sense of humor,” Wash Garvey said. “We know the way that we come across to the rest of the world, and we lean in in a way that I really appreciate.”
Today, that instinct has grown into an online following that centers around Southern culture, art and SEC fandom. Her TikTok account has more than 53,000 followers and over 2 million likes; her Instagram has nearly 19,000.
Her first video to go viral, though, wasn’t about football — it was about her son, Red. When someone misheard his name as “Bread” and didn’t flinch, Wash Garvey knew she was onto something.
“I was so taken aback that I didn’t correct her,” Wash Garvey said. “I made a video, and I was like, ‘The South is so funny because we have just inoculated each other to the weirdest names.’”
It’s the kind of moment Wash Garvey has built a career on noticing, which began shortly after a move to Oxford when her husband, Dave, accepted a position as the director of Christian Education at First Presbyterian Church in 2022.
The move followed a chance stopover. Both major sports fans — so much so that their dog is named after former Indianapolis Colts guard Quenton Nelson — the couple had passed through Oxford one Thanksgiving on their way to visit Wash Garvey’s family in Laurel. They were charmed.
“That December the job opening popped up,” Wash Garvey said. “He got hired in January, so it felt pretty ordained.”
The eccentricities of life in a close-knit college town have not only been a perfect medium for storytelling — they’ve also been solid ground to build on as an Etsy artist.
Working with different mediums keeps Wash Garvey creatively engaged. She specializes in screen-printed bandanas and tote bags, as well as acrylic bag charms, game-day buttons, hand-stitched apparel and jewelry — though she’s best known for pieces that highlight the “inside jokes” of Southern, sports-loving life.
“I feel grateful that I have built a customer base that enjoys what I make. I don’t take that lightly,” Wash Garvey said. “It’s a gift.”
That gift wasn’t part of any plan. With a background in education and no formal art training, she didn’t intend to pursue a business. Like her social media presence, it happened organically.
“I feel very lucky to have ended up here,” she said.
As for her devotion to SEC football? It long predates her move to Oxford, dating back to family allegiances in childhood. Growing up in Nashville in the late 1990s, Wash Garvey watched the Tennessee Vols win a national championship, an event that came with its own household controversy.
“They made us learn Rocky Top in choir,” she said. “And my mom was horrified. She was like, ‘You have red hair. You can’t pull off that orange.’”
Despite the household’s Tennessee ties, Wash Garvey has been an Ole Miss fan since her early 20s, a loyalty she’s kept even without having attended the university. For her, the appeal of college football was never really about the game itself.
“(Sports fans) are such a diverse group,” she said. “You probably wouldn’t be brought together for any other reason, except that you’re cheering on this team of 18-year-olds. It’s a nice escape from whatever else is going on.”
Her knack for finding joy in all things Southern, from a college football rivalry to a Saturday afternoon in The Grove, is the throughline of Wash Garvey’s work, both online and off.
“(The South) is such a peculiar, delightful, whimsical, complicated-without-even-meaning-to-be, nuanced place,” she said. “All I have to do is be observant and communicate.”
Bandanas with Bowen
Christian Wash Garvey’s daughter, Bowen, shows off one of her mom’s custom bandanas. Here's how she styles it.
1. Start smooth.
Unfold the bandana completely so the fabric lies flat and even.
2. Fold into a triangle.
Fold the bandana corner-to-corner once to form an even triangle, then gather the edges for a relaxed look.
3. Tie it off.
Secure the bandana with a simple knot.
4. Wear it your way.
Whether it’s a headband, neck scarf or bag accent, the finished look is ready for a day around town.
Step-by-Step Screen Printing
1. Build and stretch the frame.
Wash Garvey’s husband, Dave, builds the wooden frames. Then, she stretches the mesh over them.
2. Coat the screen.
In a dark room, she smooths a thin layer of UV-sensitive emulsion across the screen letting it dry completely.
3. Design and cut the stencil.
Wash Garvey sketches her design in Procreate, then sends it to a Cricut machine, which cuts the image into vinyl. It’s mirrored so that it transfers perfectly once printed.
4. Expose the design.
She places the vinyl cutout onto the coated screen and exposes it to UV light for just 15 seconds to set the design in place.
5. Rinse and reveal.
Then comes the fun part: Wash Garvey rushes the screen to the sink and rinses it with water. The emulsion beneath the vinyl washes away, while the rest hardens, revealing an open stencil in the shape of her design.
6. Print.
Once the screen is dry, she pours fabric ink across the top and pulls it down with a squeegee, pressing the ink through the mesh and onto the fabric below, completing the piece.
Comments