Maker Monday: An Aspire Exclusive Interview With Marcie Paper

Marcie Paper creates to capture moments. Her abstract patterns, prints, and animations represent her own memories, and she shares these memories with the world by offering a selection of bespoke wall paintings, weavings, and textile designs at her studio. Paper’s process began twenty years ago when her father was diagnosed with a rare disorder that impaired his short-term memory. Today, Paper creates bold, vivid artwork that reflects the twists and turns, angles, and tones of life in moments. Introducing this week’s Maker Monday, Marcie Paper.

Paper hand-paints walls, tiles, and murals that add a vivacious, contemporary spark to any environment.

Paper hand-paints walls, tiles, and murals that add a vivacious, contemporary spark to any environment.

Andrew Joseph: What is the last book you read?
Marcie Paper: “Beautiful World, Where Are You” (Sally Rooney).

Andrew: If you could live in any home in a movie or television series, what would it be?
Marcie: Grand Budapest Hotel or The Royal Tenenbaums. I wouldn’t mind setting up a home in Wes Anderson’s brain.

Andrew: What’s a guilty pleasure you have?
Marcie: Instant Coffee; every. day.

Andrew: What would your dream project or dream client be right now?
Marcie: I would love to work with a boutique hotel. I would design and paint a different patterned wall in each guest room. I love the idea of places that we inhabit for short periods of time but that stay with us much longer than that. It ties into my fascination with short-term memory. If said hotel were in a warm climate, all the dreamier.

Paper’s work uses contradiction, direction, and color to produce unique patterns representing thought and memory.

Paper’s work uses contradiction, direction, and color to produce unique patterns representing thought and memory.

Andrew: Who do you want to write your obituary?
Marcie: Lydia Davis.

Andrew: What’s your biggest fear in life?
Marcie: Memory Loss.

Andrew: Secret talent?
Marcie: Hula Hooping and Long-distance vision.

Andrew: How would you define your work in three words
Marcie: Abstract, Textural and Imperfect.

Paper’s work has been shown nationally as well as in her beloved Hudson Valley region.

Paper’s work has been shown nationally as well as in her beloved Hudson Valley region.

Andrew: Favorite piece of clothing you own?
Marcie: A vintage-inspired red wool coat with brass buttons and three-quarter-length sleeves. I have owned it for nearly 10 years. Last year, propelled by fear of decomposition, I secured three back-ups for that occasionally lost button and/or wear and tear. This should buy me another twenty…

Andrew: What’s a new hobby/skill that you have learned recently?
Marcie: I have been teaching myself to make rugs with a tufting gun. I have hand-knotted rugs on a loom in the past and love the speed and versatility afforded by a tufting gun, and it is just plain fun. Also, I have recently become the owner of a 1976 Airstream Argosy motorhome, I have big design plans for it! I plan to start by making custom tufted rugs for the steps and hallway.

Andrew: What’s the weirdest thing a client has ever asked you?
Marcie: I once had a client ask me to develop a custom pattern based on a complex physics theory.


About The Maker | Marcie Paper is a multi-disciplinary artist and designer currently focusing on hand-painted bespoke wall paintings for home and business. A long-time painter, Marcie’s patterns are always derived from her own abstract paintings.

Twenty years ago, Marcie’s father was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder that left him without the ability to retain short term memory. As a way of understanding his experience and preserving her own she began making abstract paintings that recorded and tracked her own memories. She has continued to do so to this day. The process and product have morphed and evolved over years but memory and painting have remained at the root. With this foundation Marcie creates patterns, block-printed fabric, wall murals, hand painted tiles, tufted rugs, and hand drawn animations.

She received her MFA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2006. Since then she has shown her work Nationally and has been awarded a number of grants and residencies including; Jentel Artist Residency, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Kimmel Harding Nelson and the Vermont Studio Center. She is currently living and working in the Hudson Valley.

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