ABOUT US
We work nationwide with developers, hospitality brands, architects, and interior designers — but we've stayed intentionally boutique. It means every project gets real artistic attention. It means a first-time client with a modest budget gets the same creative rigor as a campus-wide program. And it means the work stays personal, specific, and built to last — expressing the visual soul of the places we work in.
Photo by Raven B. Greene, New Moon Visuals.Pure Hart Studio was founded by two lifelong artists who have spent their careers making spaces feel like somewhere special.
Pure Hart Studio is McKenzie and Elliott Eddy-Smith. Our speciality is concocting dreamy color palettes that express the unique personality of a place.
We are often inspired by the mystical feelings that come from time spent in nature: meandering through the Lowcountry's tidal creeks, surfing off the Florida coast, and painting at the foot of the Catskill Mountains in Woodstock, New York. There's a well-known (and, if we're honest, well-worn) aesthetic of mountain kitsch and coastal cliché; then there's a deeper world full of magic, atmosphere, and inspiration. That's the world we live in, and channel into everything we create.
After a decade of painting murals across the country from New York to Texas, we're happy to call Bluffton, SC home (and still travel nationwide for projects). We create murals for homes, small businesses, and large-scale developments alike. Alongside our murals, we design specialty clothing, prints, and goods inspired by nature and its many hidden portals. You'll find our collection at markets across the Lowcountry, in shops from Brooklyn to Boston, and always online.
OUR STORY
We both have deep roots in the Lowcountry. McKenzie grew up on Hilton Head Island, exploring the Intracoastal Waterway with her brother Jesse. Elliott grew up between Edisto Island and Orlando, Florida, fishing the salt marshes, surfing the Atlantic, and freediving in Florida's natural springs. Those formative years are at the heart of everything we create.
Before we ever painted a wall together, we both lived in music. McKenzie spent seven years in New York City running BluRoc Records and touring the country as a musician and songwriter. She worked with artists like Curren$y, Wiz Khalifa, Murs, and The Black Keys on the album Blakroc. Elliott, a lifelong artist and muralist as well as musician, spent his twenties in a touring band, opening for Toots & the Maytals, James Brown, Steel Pulse and Jason Mraz.
McKenzie came home to South Carolina in 2014 and opened King Dusko on King Street in Charleston, an art gallery, coffee shop and music venue. That's where we met. We started making music together, producing community building events, then painting together. Elliott taught McKenzie the craft of large scale mural work, and she brought along her keen eye and talent for production. We still approach every wall the way you'd approach a song, adjusting color and composition until the whole thing hums (the perfect chord becomes the perfect palette).
In 2017 we founded Headspace Murals. The name came from a simple idea: We wanted to create murals that created memorable atmospheres. Our very first project together was 600 feet long and took months to finish. From there we spent years on the road, painting across South Carolina, Florida, Texas and beyond.
2023 brought a much-needed adventure full of art and new life. McKenzie had fallen in love with the Catskills during her New York years. In a full circle moment, we got a few projects in Woodstock, NY, became enchanted with the area, and opened Pure Hart Studio on Tinker Street.
The studio is named for our son, Hart, who was born during our time here. Our time in Woodstock gave us room to grow as artists. There, we started the Pure Hart Studio collection: specialty clothing, prints, and cards. Where our murals live in that dreamy play of color, the collection expands on that and explores the dreams themselves. Today the collection is carried by the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston as well as boutiques and specialty shops up and down the East Coast.
We are so happy to be back down south in the Lowcountry near our family and friends for this next chapter of our lives. We are so grateful to continue our work as artists here with Bluffton as our home base. You'll find us at local markets while we search for our next retail home, and the full collection is always online.
Whether you're dreaming up a wall for your nursery or your business, working with a team on a large scale placemaking project, or interested in a piece from our collection — we can’t wait to make something for you. We work in Bluffton, Hilton Head Island and the rest of the Lowcountry, as well as Charleston, The Midlands, and the Upstate. We also regularly travel nationwide to create artwork for our incredible clients.