Landscape Art, Inc.

Anita McCormick received her Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art at the University of Houston in 1984. While in college, she supported herself by performing landscape maintenance in the Clear Lake / League City area south of Houston. Her “part-time job” became the company, which is now Landscape Art. One of her customers was a Shell station in Dickinson, Texas. It wasn’t too long before the station caught the attention of some of the Shell corporate folks in Houston. Within a few years, Anita was designing the landscaping for all of the Houston area Shell stations and Landscape Art was installing most of them.

As the company grew, the reputation of Anita and Landscape Art grew with it. Exxon decided that they were ready to improve their image and asked Anita to come up with a landscape concept that would be “different from and better than Shell”. What Anita came up with became the Exxon Signature Landscape. It was so successful that Landscape Art provided landscape and irrigation designs for all of the new Exxon retail company stores in Texas, Tennessee and Louisiana through the 1990’s. Additionally, Anita has acted as a consultant for Exxon in Dallas, Memphis, Orlando, Nashville, Washington D.C. and Baltimore.

 Anita was born in Alton, Illinois, has lived in the Houston area for over thirty years and is married. She is a Past-President of the Clear Lake Area Chamber of Commerce Toastmaster’s Club and is a Past-President of the Lady’s Golf Association at South Shore Harbour Country Club. She is a member of the Associated Landscape Contractors of America, Texas Landscape and Nurseryman’s Association and is a Certified Landscape Professional (CLP #336) and a Texas Licensed Irrigator (LI7824).

Debbie Gerac came to Landscape Art in August 2006 to fill the accounting position and help with administrative duties. Although her strengths lie primarily in the financial and administrative functions of the company, she has acquired some horticultural knowledge along the way and is now a very valuable contributor to all aspects of Landscape Art’s activities.Recently Debbie was the lead person in implementing the TimeScape payroll system, which utilizes personal scanners, job and task barcodes and mobile time tracking. Her skills with QuickBooks and Microsoft Office allowed for an almost seamless transition to this dynamic technology. Debbie produces the company payroll, develops extensive in-house financial reports, manages the office and is the Webmaster.

  Debbie was born in Wichita, Kansas, graduated from Clear Creek High School, and has an Associate of Arts degree from San Jacinto College. She is married and the mother of three children and one grandchild.

Jay Williams came to the Green Industry by joining Landscape Art in 1994. He learned landscape construction by building small, commercial sites for Shell, Exxon, McDonalds and others throughout Texas and eventually in Tennessee, Louisiana and Florida.

 Jay became the General Manager for Landscape Art in the late 1990’s and designed and constructed specialty projects such a lighted, floating Shell logo that was installed at the Shell Learning Center in the Woodlands. Later he built a large, permanent stone logo and a Shell float in the lake of the 18th hole at Redstone Golf Course. The Redstone structure and float are decorated each spring for the Shell Houston Open PGA event. The displays have been featured in Houston Chronicle, Sports Illustrated and on live television broadcasts each year.

 Gradually, Landscape Art morphed into a full landscape/site construction company with top-notch, in-house crews for irrigation, concrete work, light construction, drainage and landscape construction. The company retains an absolutely stellar reputation among Landscape Architects, General Contractors, Municipalities, Developers and Institutions such as MD Anderson, Rice University and the University of Houston.

 Jay is an active member of the Texas Nursery and Landscape Association. He has served on the Region 2 Board for 12 years in a variety of positions. For the past four years, he has been the Chair for the Winter Workshop, which is the largest “worker” oriented landscape seminar in the state of Texas. He sits on the state-level Landscape Committee and has been a frequent judge for the TEIL Awards (Texas Excellence In Landscaping).

 Additionally, Jay is a member of the Houston / Gulf Coast Irrigators Association, Associated General Contractors and Organic Horticulture Benefits Alliance. He is active in immigration reform legislation by participating in a panel forum for Congressman Ted Poe and visiting Congressional Offices in Washington D.C. with TNLA and PLANET.

As a Senior Project Manager at Landscape Art, I ensure that project managers and Landscape Art team members have the technical support they need so that projects are delivered in a manner which exceeds expectations. Assisting with the bidding and construction of projects as well as the daily operations of the company allows me to help Landscape Art team members succeed and grow.

Carmelo Orellana started with Landscape Art in 1994 just after he graduated from Clear Creek High School. His ability to manage in the field, his fluency in Spanish and English and his devotion to accomplishing his tasks has made him indispensable to the Landscape Art family.

  Carmelo has the distinction of being one of fewer than 100 landscapers in the State of Texas to complete all phases of the testing for the Certified Landscape Technician (CLT#233647) exam as designed by Planet (formerly Associated Landscape Contractors of America) and administered by TNLA. He is now an instructor at the Region 2 TNLA Winter Workshop training meetings and serves on the Education Committee of Region 2.

  He is a licensed irrigator (LI7893) and has certifications that include “Certified Four Stroke and Two Stroke Engine Technician” from the Equipment & Engine Training Council and the ICPI Certified Concrete Paver Installer Program from the Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute.

  Carmelo’s many accomplishments were recognized by the Texas Nursery and Landscape Association in 2010 as he became the first Hispanic recipient of the Young Leader Award. To be chosen from among literally tens of thousands of landscapers in the state is not only an incredible honor, but an indication of the dedication and professionalism that he continues to exhibit.