Can you imagine sitting in a college art class, sketching away with no idea that one of those drawings would inspire the design in a boutique hotel nearly 70 years later? That’s exactly what happened to Miriam.
In the spring of 1957, during her senior year at the University of Alabama, Miriam was taking an abstract drawing class taught by Professor Jack Granata, one of the founding faculty of the university’s Art Department. Professor Granata was a sculptor, and he used that perspective to teach his students abstraction. Miriam filled sketchbooks during his class that spring, but two drawings in particular — loose, energetic sketches that suggest animals in motion — quietly waited all these decades for their moment.
That moment came in the form of Andrew Alford, Chief Creative Officer for Graduate Hotels. If you’re not familiar with the brand, Graduate Hotels are a collection of boutique hotels built around the culture and traditions of the college towns where they’re located. Andrew had been following Miriam’s art on Instagram, and when a new Graduate Hotel called The Capstone was announced in Tuscaloosa — right there at the University of Alabama — those two drawings of Miriam’s came to mind.
As Chief Creative Officer for the project, Andrew reached out to the hospitality management partners on the project, Neal and Cory Jackson of Jackson Hospitality Services, to ask whether Miriam might create some custom abstracts for the hotel’s design. And here’s where it gets delightful: they’re her cousins!
Andrew’s vision was beautiful — abstract elephants, drawn in the spirit of those 1957 sketches, woven into the textile pattern for the curtains in every guest room. The elephant is the University of Alabama’s mascot, so the choice carried a meaning that went beyond design. He loved the energy and movement in Miriam’s work, and the idea of honoring her at her own alma mater made it all the more meaningful.
While we were very excited about the opportunity, Miriam, though, had real doubts. She has fairly severe Macular Degeneration in both eyes, which makes detailed work genuinely difficult. And on top of that — she had never drawn an elephant in her life!
This is where we have to give an enormous amount of credit to Mattie Lavelle at Curator and Co. Mattie had been our art advisor for several months, and she was instrumental in securing two exhibits in 2026 and the acquisition of Miriam’s work by the Sarah Moody Gallery at the University of Alabama. When we wavered on this project, Mattie didn’t. She insisted we take it on, helped us work through all the details behind the scenes, and before we knew it, Miriam was contributing to the design of a brand-new hotel at her alma mater.
Miriam threw herself into it. We checked out books on elephants from our local library. Watched elephant videos on YouTube. We even went to Rural King to buy a small toy elephant model. She worked for weeks to create a whole range of elephant drawings, and Andrew’s creative team selected six of them to build the textile pattern for both the sheers and the curtains. The team at Valley Forge Fabrics — led by Michelle Matthews — did a stunning job bringing those drawings to fabric. We love how the elephant pattern is subtle enough to almost hide in plain sight, revealing itself as a little gift to guests when they draw the curtains. The original elephant drawings will also be on display in the hotel itself.
And we can’t wait to visit. The Capstone is scheduled to open in 2027, and a trip back to Tuscaloosa feels very much in order. Roll Tide!